Do they punctuate the bus route? (5)
I believe the answer is:
stops
'bus route?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'do they punctuate the' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'sops' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stops that I've seen before include "Discontinues" , "Prevents" , "Posts (anag.)" , "Checks" , "Ends" .)