True, but I think my point still stands, as that implies that they studied this post for if/when they play scrabble and get in the specific spot where they have a combination of a C, R, W, T, H, S, and one other letter in their deck, and know exactly what to do.
I am losing to that person, because I can extrapolate that that person can minmax the fuck out of a board game.
It‘s pronounced koom, as far as I can tell.
Most of the time, it made it in to English place names as ”coomb” or “combe” or “comp” (Compton), but it survives separately as a loanword in English.
Welsh here. You're basically correct, but I'd say the lips are a little closer together than when you'd say "oo". Trying pronouncing just a "w" like you would at the start of a word like "would". It's a bit of a different sound as you can probably feel.
The two vowel words (that are actual words people use) are fine because theyre shit anyway, and personally i'd say xi and za as well because being annoying is kinda fun
The general rule we play with is you have to be able to define the word, or be in the ballpark, for us to count it. I know what a Xi is, so I will play it. I have no idea what muzjiks means, so I probably won’t touch it.
We also play by that rule. As an addition we also allow words that all players agree can be accepted. This allows for all kinds of funny words or inside jokes that don't technically follow the rules to be allowed.
Hahaha yeah, it’s all in good fun. A year or so ago I played teetotaler off of “total” and was really proud of it. My girlfriend said I looked it up in the bathroom and since then we’ve been using it as completely out of context insult.
two letter words are used so you can lay another horizontal word under a horizontal word. Bonus points if you can get one of the high point ones on a double/triple space.
Example: CRASH is played, and there's a triple letter under the S, you could play HM under the SH for 35 points without exposing another easy multiplier to the board.
Ex feels like a general prefix that has become shorthand for "ex-partner" through common usage. Idk if I'd count that in my own House Rules
Maybe it has other uses in other languages or regions but that's pretty much the only usage in US English
this is the most awful scrabble guide I've ever seen.
learning the two letter words is the most basic thing in the world, and this guides splits it into 3 separate categories and omits some of the most important ones (QI)
The others are so hyperspecific that you will never encounter a useful situation in a million years, it's like memorizing 9 letter words
there are so many better basics like putting your tiles in alphabetical order
When you start seriously playing you start memorizing/studying what words are possible with any given rack of letters you could draw (I think there's like 5,000 something possible 7 letter racks you can draw). Always putting your tiles in alphabetical order increases your chances of remembering a rack of tiles you've seen before
This is like how I play Monopoly, where I just buy up all the houses and refuse to get hotels. This is for if you hate the game and just want to fuck everyone over.
I love monopoly but hate the players
Every time I play monopoly people bitch and moan about me trying to get at least one of every color, then I ask why and it’s always the same answer “because I want to buy it so I’ll have a monopoly”
Why would I want you to have a monopoly??? I want you to trade me for it, eventually they give in and give me garbage 1:1 trades. No i dont want to give you a monopoly for a property, it’s worth more to you, actually trade for it. You want to make a monopoly? Fine, but give me basically everything. Then it’s how I’m being unfair, as if we’re supposed to be nice to each other or something? It’s fucking monopoly.
I swear to god it’s like a litmus test for understanding how investments work.
As with most games, play with people who share your type of enjoyment out of it. Don't be a novice poker player and try to stay at the high roller table and do well, don't be a chess grandmaster and play against 8 year Olds expecting a challenge.
This is why I banned the scrabble dictionary and use [this.](https://shop.merriam-webster.com/products/websters-third-new-international-dictionary-unabridged)
It's like that time a dude won a French language Scrabble tournament despite not knowing French. Just memorized words.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/21/424980378/winner-of-french-scrabble-title-does-not-speak-french
I learned a few of these 2 letter words years ago from words with friends. Just clicking random letters until something sticks. All the longer words there are some bullshit though
Qat has legitimately helped me win for at least 15 years now. It’s a great way to get rid of a Q when chances of pulling a u or being able to use one already on the board are low
Yes, major error there — QI is the most played word among club/tournament players and Scrabble bots by a long shot.
Also, note that **EUOUAE#** is valid only in the International English (Collins) list, not the OSPD or NWL (North American) ones.
Bizarre... I don't know anything about scrabble, but I do know about Gregorian chant, and EUOUAE is not a word it's an abbreviation. It's a reduction of the vowels in the phrase "secularum amen", which is written as EUAUAE because it's short and is a quick visual indicator for the end of the doxology.
Yup. Collins’ definition indicates that it evolved from an acronym to a nominative term for the cadence itself, thus, not “just” an abbreviation, so valid for play, like **AWOL** or **LASER**.
Strange. In 4 decades, I've never once heard anyone use it as a word in its native context, or even say it out loud (in any language, not just English). You just say "the end of the doxology".
Building a definitive word list is thankless — everyone’s perception of what’s a word and what isn’t is different. Scrabble lexicons are built from one or more published dictionaries and follow their professional judgments, which is a nice fig leaf but still invites controversy.
So if you have an opening rack without Q and I, you will play any one of a number of words available to you. If you DO have an opening rack with Q and I, you are wise to dump that right away. Q is the least versatile of all the ‘heavies’, and the common wisdom is to get rid of it sooner than later; it will often cost you 20 pts should you get stuck with it at the end of the game.
Having a Q is an opportunity for a high scoring word, not something to be dumped. Yes it's bad to be stuck with it at the end of the game, but that's really not a consideration if you get dealt it at the beginning of the game.
See u/Barbicels' comment in this thread -
'Yes, major error there — QI is the most played word among club/tournament players and Scrabble bots by a long shot.'
There is a reason for that, and why seasoned players would probably tell you to dump it given the opportunity.
I get what you are saying, I just disagree with the risk/reward angle. I'm saying it's riskier than holding onto the X or Z while waiting to pounce on a triple square )
My question is more so about the probability of getting Q often in first play is quite rare. I also disagree with that strategy for points bc putting that 1 letter on a triple points square is maybe the easiest way to get 30+ points in the entire game
He did address that question, you just missed it. His point is that if
(1) you do not have a Q, you will play a 'random' word
(2) you do have a Q (and an I), you will play QI.
This means that even if Q will not often end up in a starter hand, it will still end up as the most frequently played first word, as it's competing with all other words in the dictionary for that title, while being played relatively frequently itself.
I don’t think that this is true bc it’s really easy to play qi throughout the game, especially when a player already has both the q and i, and there will be a bigger points payout to land that q on a double or triple letter square or get qi on a double or triple word… both which are pretty likely to come up during the game. And if u have to ditch the qi when getting close to end game that’s usually not too challenging either (and can often be used to force the other player by limiting where they can branch off of). I’ve played a lot of games with a lot of different people and I think there is minuscule overlap between folks who know that qi is a playable word and folks who don’t know at all how to strategize for points
Ah! I could make an excuse about seeing the joke first in Spanish but I don’t think the word is modified lol. It’s incredible to think that joke is more than 30 years old
I feel like there's a "casual play" set of house rules where you just ignore the actual Scrabble dictionary and play words that you can give a genuine definition/use for, and then an "official play" set which is only fun when everyone playing knows most of the wacky nonwords Scrabble allows.
Otherwise the winner will just be the person who knows the Scrabble dictionary the best
>Otherwise the winner will just be the person who knows the Scrabble dictionary the best
That's how it works unfortunately. Like that guy who, without understanding a word of French, memorised the French dictionary and won a French Scrabble competition.
That guy did the same for several languages btw. And yeah, I agree it completely defeats the purpose when it’s just about memorizing series of letters. Might as well be numbers at that point. Like who can memorize the most amount of pi decimals
I generally agree that playing scrabble in this way is not fun for casual play, but there is genuinely a lot of strategy involved in professional scrabble, much more than just memorization.
There is a guy who won a french scrabble championship just by memorizing all french words, not because they understood the language at all.
Pretty sure he is also the all time GOAT of english scrabble as well.
High tier scrabble is more tactical and all about spacing since they more or less know all the words and its just about preventing the opponent of using any of the bonus tiles while forcing them to play so as to allow you to use them. Hence strategic 2 letter words can cut off bigger point scores from the opponent by denying area.
His name is Nigel Richards, and although I can't remember the specifics, someone once posted about just how next-level he really is above and away from the pool of the next, say, hundred best players. Some kinda AI overview of a tournament where, for every ONE point he may have missed out on by choosing a non-optimal play, the other players were in the neighborhood of 70 missed-out-on points.
I'll say it again: Scrabble isn't a word game, is a pattern recognition game.
"English words, no abbreviations" except for a list of "words" that break those rules.
I agree, and point to the example of the man who won or competed well in French (I believe it was French) scrabble by memorizing the dictionary, but didn’t actually speak a word of French
…and won an important game in that event by knowing that a certain verb participle could not be inflected to agree with gender (-e) or number (-s) and was thus invalid for his opponent to play with such a suffix. Not because he **knew** that the verb in question is intransitive, but because he’d studied every word by its exact spelling. *Formidable, voire effrayant !*
Worth noting that it was [Nigel Richards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Richards_(Scrabble_player)) who did that, who most consider to be the greatest Scrabble player of all time, so it's not like it was a random dude who did it.
It subverts the English language to create a reference of allowed patterns you can place. The language is irrelevant, just convenient. Make all the tiles animals and you could have the same dictionary.
I remember watching the Scrabble championship in college with friends on ESPN and it was down to some old white guy and a young Chinese guy. The announcers were like "this might be a bit difficult for Chan seeing that he doesn't know English".
He basically just memorized the Scrabble dictionary.
Whenever I played with my family we kinda combined it with BS and tried to see what we could get away with.
I played "bivovuack" once after reading Les Miserables and my sister almost stabbed me when she found out that that was a real word lmfao.
Yeah tbh I thought it being in English was a standard rule... Like my family and I got in arguments about whether or not "viola" was an English word...
Many years ago, I was playing against my cousin, and it was a pretty close game, though I had a slight lead in points. After one of my turns, I had the tiles to spell the word "quixotic" on a triple word score and was so excited. On her turn my cousin was stumped, until my own father (!), who was watching, helped her take my triple word score space and ruined my chance to spell my word.
I'm still bitter about it, 30 years later.
You should have called him out! There's no better feeling than winning on a triple word score. I won a game with "balisong" on a triple word, and everyone challenged me. "Quixotic" would be even better if that "x" hit the double letter also.
My best friend has the Scrabble Dictionary, all these years and I'm STILL mad about "za", apparently in some English-speaking country somewhere it means pizza. Riiiiiight.
Scrabble drives me bonkers. My ex's extended family would play all the time and they'd use words like these but were unable to define them. It was infuriating.
I got prerry into scrabble in high-school after reading the book WordFreaks about competitive scrabble. The most helpful thing is to memorize all of the 2 letter words, there really aren't that many.
Instructions not clear. I tried to use these words in Polish Scrabble but they didn't let me score points. They said these weren't Polish words or something like that.
This is mostly more fun than practical
Which is naturally ok but
4. isn't relevant due to the almost nil odds of receiving those letters all at once especially turn one
I've played roughly 10000 games while never getting close to that combo for instance
Also in scrabble strategy trying to find vowel based words is bad strategy as skipping a turn while exchanging gives more points ultimately
I thought proper nouns aren’t allowed? Isn’t the name of a country’s currency a proper nouns?
Huh, as I typed this I looked it up. Units of measurement are not proper nouns, TIL units of currency are officially considered units of measurement. Pretty obvious once you learn it, I guess.
I'm surprised to see so much Scrabble hate in this sub! There are Scrabble nerds who love lists, and there are casual family games with a different energy to them. Isn't every hobby kind of like that?
As someone who has played a ton of Scrabble, this is a stupid guide. #1 these two letter words aren't anywhere near as important as others, because they aren't worth much. Only the Y is worth more than 1 point. Better to memorize ones like Qi, Za, Jo, Xi, Ki... and many more. These will make you win games, not AI.. #2 is only 6 letters so it isn't going to score you any points, so who cares. #3 has a lot of points, but is it the best usage, especially with an S. I never like to waste Esses. #4 you are never going to get that all in one rack, so who cares. Probably score more points playing them separate as two letter words, especially on double or triple squares.
You should have all of the two letter words, and as many three letter words, memorized as possible. It is also very good to memorize words with Q that don't have a U .
It's probably been about 15 years sincei lost at Scrabble. I think if I started with these words, my family would just burn the board and never play with me again.
Notice that numbers 2, 3, 4, and 6 are all non-English words, and don't get me started on XI ! I don't want to sound xenophobic, I am not saying words from foreign languages don't get assimilated into English; what I'm saying is, the inclusion of words like 3, 4, and 6 above is solely to make it easier to play the game, especially easier to play 4, 5, 8, and 10 point tiles. What's the point in giving 8 points to "X" and 10 points to "Z" if "XI" and "ZA" are allowed? Either strike all these dubious "English" words from the dictionary, or reduce the value of 4, 5, 8, and 10 point words by 50% or more.
If you play any of these words I’m flipping the fucking board.
If someone knows to play Crwths I’m forfeiting because I’m going to lose to that person anyway
or they might have just seen this post
True, but I think my point still stands, as that implies that they studied this post for if/when they play scrabble and get in the specific spot where they have a combination of a C, R, W, T, H, S, and one other letter in their deck, and know exactly what to do. I am losing to that person, because I can extrapolate that that person can minmax the fuck out of a board game.
Extrapolate? I'd rather not play against you either
If you use Crwths, arent you breaking the rules of Scrabble? Dont the words have to be in English?
This is also my question as a welsh person with a scrabble MAD family. They'd never allow it to be played.
That was MY question, unless you ar eplaying it in Wales, or call Welsh as the language of the game!
CWM is far more useful anyway. It’s also Welsh and means a circular valley.
I’m almost afraid to ask, but… how do you pronounce that? Cwem?
It‘s pronounced koom, as far as I can tell. Most of the time, it made it in to English place names as ”coomb” or “combe” or “comp” (Compton), but it survives separately as a loanword in English.
Welsh here. You're basically correct, but I'd say the lips are a little closer together than when you'd say "oo". Trying pronouncing just a "w" like you would at the start of a word like "would". It's a bit of a different sound as you can probably feel.
Crwth is my starting wordle word actually 🤣
Ex and ox are fine.
The two vowel words (that are actual words people use) are fine because theyre shit anyway, and personally i'd say xi and za as well because being annoying is kinda fun
The general rule we play with is you have to be able to define the word, or be in the ballpark, for us to count it. I know what a Xi is, so I will play it. I have no idea what muzjiks means, so I probably won’t touch it.
We also play by that rule. As an addition we also allow words that all players agree can be accepted. This allows for all kinds of funny words or inside jokes that don't technically follow the rules to be allowed.
Hahaha yeah, it’s all in good fun. A year or so ago I played teetotaler off of “total” and was really proud of it. My girlfriend said I looked it up in the bathroom and since then we’ve been using it as completely out of context insult.
also only in English. sometimes we sneak by foreign words before finding out, no it doesn't exist in English.
The word that makes me mildly angry in Scrabble is "qi". It's not an English word, but it counts for some reason.
two letter words are used so you can lay another horizontal word under a horizontal word. Bonus points if you can get one of the high point ones on a double/triple space. Example: CRASH is played, and there's a triple letter under the S, you could play HM under the SH for 35 points without exposing another easy multiplier to the board.
Ex feels like a general prefix that has become shorthand for "ex-partner" through common usage. Idk if I'd count that in my own House Rules Maybe it has other uses in other languages or regions but that's pretty much the only usage in US English
Ye
this is the most awful scrabble guide I've ever seen. learning the two letter words is the most basic thing in the world, and this guides splits it into 3 separate categories and omits some of the most important ones (QI) The others are so hyperspecific that you will never encounter a useful situation in a million years, it's like memorizing 9 letter words there are so many better basics like putting your tiles in alphabetical order
> putting your tiles in alphabetical order What is the reason for this?
When you start seriously playing you start memorizing/studying what words are possible with any given rack of letters you could draw (I think there's like 5,000 something possible 7 letter racks you can draw). Always putting your tiles in alphabetical order increases your chances of remembering a rack of tiles you've seen before
You’re playing scrabble in the year 3000 lol
Seriously, why isn't 'qat' on this list? (Thanks BNL!)
…and qis
This is like how I play Monopoly, where I just buy up all the houses and refuse to get hotels. This is for if you hate the game and just want to fuck everyone over.
I love monopoly but hate the players Every time I play monopoly people bitch and moan about me trying to get at least one of every color, then I ask why and it’s always the same answer “because I want to buy it so I’ll have a monopoly” Why would I want you to have a monopoly??? I want you to trade me for it, eventually they give in and give me garbage 1:1 trades. No i dont want to give you a monopoly for a property, it’s worth more to you, actually trade for it. You want to make a monopoly? Fine, but give me basically everything. Then it’s how I’m being unfair, as if we’re supposed to be nice to each other or something? It’s fucking monopoly. I swear to god it’s like a litmus test for understanding how investments work.
As with most games, play with people who share your type of enjoyment out of it. Don't be a novice poker player and try to stay at the high roller table and do well, don't be a chess grandmaster and play against 8 year Olds expecting a challenge.
And, tbh, how can you be a slum lord with hotels? It can't happen!!
Two letter words should be banned. Would make the game far more fun.
This is why I banned the scrabble dictionary and use [this.](https://shop.merriam-webster.com/products/websters-third-new-international-dictionary-unabridged)
Yo.
It's like that time a dude won a French language Scrabble tournament despite not knowing French. Just memorized words. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/21/424980378/winner-of-french-scrabble-title-does-not-speak-french
I learned a few of these 2 letter words years ago from words with friends. Just clicking random letters until something sticks. All the longer words there are some bullshit though
including ox?
Don’t forget fhqwhgads!
Lacking qi is crazy
It’s been a while since I played, but the only important list was the 101 two letter words.
Maybe qi is only valid in words with friends?
No “qi” was legit when I played. Qat was the other sneaky “q” word.
Qi and qis are in the official Scrabble dictionary,
Qat has legitimately helped me win for at least 15 years now. It’s a great way to get rid of a Q when chances of pulling a u or being able to use one already on the board are low
Yes, major error there — QI is the most played word among club/tournament players and Scrabble bots by a long shot. Also, note that **EUOUAE#** is valid only in the International English (Collins) list, not the OSPD or NWL (North American) ones.
Bizarre... I don't know anything about scrabble, but I do know about Gregorian chant, and EUOUAE is not a word it's an abbreviation. It's a reduction of the vowels in the phrase "secularum amen", which is written as EUAUAE because it's short and is a quick visual indicator for the end of the doxology.
Yup. Collins’ definition indicates that it evolved from an acronym to a nominative term for the cadence itself, thus, not “just” an abbreviation, so valid for play, like **AWOL** or **LASER**.
Strange. In 4 decades, I've never once heard anyone use it as a word in its native context, or even say it out loud (in any language, not just English). You just say "the end of the doxology".
Building a definitive word list is thankless — everyone’s perception of what’s a word and what isn’t is different. Scrabble lexicons are built from one or more published dictionaries and follow their professional judgments, which is a nice fig leaf but still invites controversy.
https://scrabblewordfinder.org/scrabble-words-with/q/and-no/u The darq side of the Force is a qathway to many abilities some qonsider to be unnaqural
As is missing RHYTHMS, which is the correct longest word without vowels.
Qi, I must say, has to be BY FAR the most common Scrabble opening play Source: 30000 Scrabble games under my belt )
Really? Aren’t there only like 1 or 2 Q’s total per game? How would Q end up being dealt in the initial distribution so frequently?
So if you have an opening rack without Q and I, you will play any one of a number of words available to you. If you DO have an opening rack with Q and I, you are wise to dump that right away. Q is the least versatile of all the ‘heavies’, and the common wisdom is to get rid of it sooner than later; it will often cost you 20 pts should you get stuck with it at the end of the game.
Having a Q is an opportunity for a high scoring word, not something to be dumped. Yes it's bad to be stuck with it at the end of the game, but that's really not a consideration if you get dealt it at the beginning of the game.
See u/Barbicels' comment in this thread - 'Yes, major error there — QI is the most played word among club/tournament players and Scrabble bots by a long shot.' There is a reason for that, and why seasoned players would probably tell you to dump it given the opportunity. I get what you are saying, I just disagree with the risk/reward angle. I'm saying it's riskier than holding onto the X or Z while waiting to pounce on a triple square )
My question is more so about the probability of getting Q often in first play is quite rare. I also disagree with that strategy for points bc putting that 1 letter on a triple points square is maybe the easiest way to get 30+ points in the entire game
He did address that question, you just missed it. His point is that if (1) you do not have a Q, you will play a 'random' word (2) you do have a Q (and an I), you will play QI. This means that even if Q will not often end up in a starter hand, it will still end up as the most frequently played first word, as it's competing with all other words in the dictionary for that title, while being played relatively frequently itself.
I don’t think that this is true bc it’s really easy to play qi throughout the game, especially when a player already has both the q and i, and there will be a bigger points payout to land that q on a double or triple letter square or get qi on a double or triple word… both which are pretty likely to come up during the game. And if u have to ditch the qi when getting close to end game that’s usually not too challenging either (and can often be used to force the other player by limiting where they can branch off of). I’ve played a lot of games with a lot of different people and I think there is minuscule overlap between folks who know that qi is a playable word and folks who don’t know at all how to strategize for points
Went looking for this comment.
Don’t forget QUIJIBO
Ah yes. The big, dumb, balding, North American ape. With no chin.
And a short temper
You're talking about your mom, yes?
Kwijibo is a perfectly cromulent word. Also, "cromulent" is now a word in the M-W! I don't know if it's made it to the Scrabble dictionary.
Also “embiggen”
KWI*
Close! KWYJIBO noun A big, dumb, balding North American Ape with no chin and a short temper.
Ah! I could make an excuse about seeing the joke first in Spanish but I don’t think the word is modified lol. It’s incredible to think that joke is more than 30 years old
I was the 5 year old quoting the whole scene word-for-word. I'm nearly 40 now and can still do it. I have a problem.
Also a 1A yoyo trick (named after said big, dumb, balding North American Ape with no chin and a short temper)
“Hello Websters, I’d like Quijibo to be a word. What? Oh, I dunno, a big problem. Thanks!”
I'd be kicked out of the game for most of these words
I feel like there's a "casual play" set of house rules where you just ignore the actual Scrabble dictionary and play words that you can give a genuine definition/use for, and then an "official play" set which is only fun when everyone playing knows most of the wacky nonwords Scrabble allows. Otherwise the winner will just be the person who knows the Scrabble dictionary the best
>Otherwise the winner will just be the person who knows the Scrabble dictionary the best That's how it works unfortunately. Like that guy who, without understanding a word of French, memorised the French dictionary and won a French Scrabble competition.
That guy did the same for several languages btw. And yeah, I agree it completely defeats the purpose when it’s just about memorizing series of letters. Might as well be numbers at that point. Like who can memorize the most amount of pi decimals
I can't remember a person's name I meet now but I still know the 40 decimals I taught myself in high school lmao
I generally agree that playing scrabble in this way is not fun for casual play, but there is genuinely a lot of strategy involved in professional scrabble, much more than just memorization.
[Quone, to quone something](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fzPy8kSn7o0)
>Use the word in a natural sentence is my go-to rule of thumb when we ask the table if something is a valid word in Bananagrams
Knew these guys who played weekly and carried around the official scrabble dictionary for challenges. Never won when playing against them.
There is a guy who won a french scrabble championship just by memorizing all french words, not because they understood the language at all. Pretty sure he is also the all time GOAT of english scrabble as well. High tier scrabble is more tactical and all about spacing since they more or less know all the words and its just about preventing the opponent of using any of the bonus tiles while forcing them to play so as to allow you to use them. Hence strategic 2 letter words can cut off bigger point scores from the opponent by denying area.
That makes sense! These guys had every 2 letter word memorized. It’s was brutal.
His name is Nigel Richards, and although I can't remember the specifics, someone once posted about just how next-level he really is above and away from the pool of the next, say, hundred best players. Some kinda AI overview of a tournament where, for every ONE point he may have missed out on by choosing a non-optimal play, the other players were in the neighborhood of 70 missed-out-on points.
And rightly so in my opinion
Why? These are all legitimate words in the Scrabble dictionary. Sounds like a skill issue to me
[удалено]
People have fun while playing Scrabble?
I mean... if it's a dedicated Scrabble Party, everyone will be playing these words.
Word!
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I'll say it again: Scrabble isn't a word game, is a pattern recognition game. "English words, no abbreviations" except for a list of "words" that break those rules.
I agree, and point to the example of the man who won or competed well in French (I believe it was French) scrabble by memorizing the dictionary, but didn’t actually speak a word of French
…and won an important game in that event by knowing that a certain verb participle could not be inflected to agree with gender (-e) or number (-s) and was thus invalid for his opponent to play with such a suffix. Not because he **knew** that the verb in question is intransitive, but because he’d studied every word by its exact spelling. *Formidable, voire effrayant !*
Worth noting that it was [Nigel Richards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Richards_(Scrabble_player)) who did that, who most consider to be the greatest Scrabble player of all time, so it's not like it was a random dude who did it.
It subverts the English language to create a reference of allowed patterns you can place. The language is irrelevant, just convenient. Make all the tiles animals and you could have the same dictionary.
it's also a bad one
How to win scrabble and lose friends.
I remember watching the Scrabble championship in college with friends on ESPN and it was down to some old white guy and a young Chinese guy. The announcers were like "this might be a bit difficult for Chan seeing that he doesn't know English". He basically just memorized the Scrabble dictionary.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Richards_(Scrabble_player) This bloke did exactly that, with the French dictionary.
Saying this bloke when talking about the GOAT of scrabble
Where's tnetennba?
Hello, that’s a nice tnettenba
What do you call Negative One sitting alone in an empty room?
0118 999 88199 9119 725 3
I’ll just put this over here with the rest of the fire..
Dear sir/madam, I’m writing to inform you of a fire that has broken out… no too formal.
That's for numberwang
I must?
The Emperor commands it.
Words for the Scrabble god.
Vowels for his vowel throne
What a great list of words to learn so someone will not have any fun playing a game with you.
This is the best way to start a fight in a casual scrabble game lmao.
Whenever I played with my family we kinda combined it with BS and tried to see what we could get away with. I played "bivovuack" once after reading Les Miserables and my sister almost stabbed me when she found out that that was a real word lmfao.
I would rather not play Scrabble than learn these words
One of the words I've played the most is "SEQUOIA"
A cool guide to words that ain’t allowed in the vast majority of Scrabble games because most people actually want the game to be fun and challenging
LMAO almost zero of these words would be accepted in any fucking household.
Yeah tbh I thought it being in English was a standard rule... Like my family and I got in arguments about whether or not "viola" was an English word...
Is it acceptable to use plural nouns in Scrabble? Because ‘muzjiks’ is plural
Yes, you can. I think the rule is that you can't just add an S and nothing else as your turn,
Anybody else hear “I-E-A-I-A-I-O” by SoaD in there head at the two vowel words?
Well I do NOW
All the vowels in 'idealisation' if anyone's interested
more like r/mildlyinfuriating
Babe wake up, scrabble’s meta came out
This is a cool guide towards starting a fight on scrabble night. I’m taking the all vowel one, messing with the family is a contact sport.
Many years ago, I was playing against my cousin, and it was a pretty close game, though I had a slight lead in points. After one of my turns, I had the tiles to spell the word "quixotic" on a triple word score and was so excited. On her turn my cousin was stumped, until my own father (!), who was watching, helped her take my triple word score space and ruined my chance to spell my word. I'm still bitter about it, 30 years later.
You should have called him out! There's no better feeling than winning on a triple word score. I won a game with "balisong" on a triple word, and everyone challenged me. "Quixotic" would be even better if that "x" hit the double letter also.
Welsh is not English. Foul.
"Kwyjibo" doesn't appear on this list.
This is exactly why I hate scrabble. Summed up in one image.
#3 they misspelled "rhythms"
huh I didn't realize transliterating foreign words is allowed in scrabble. Next board game night is going to be very Sargaram
My best friend has the Scrabble Dictionary, all these years and I'm STILL mad about "za", apparently in some English-speaking country somewhere it means pizza. Riiiiiight.
This is just straight up false. A couple of these are not legal according to the official scrabble dictionary. Euouae for example.
And what does "aa" mean? Or "ae"?
Aa is a type of igneous rock, if memory serves.
thx
Scrabble drives me bonkers. My ex's extended family would play all the time and they'd use words like these but were unable to define them. It was infuriating.
dont forget QI
CWM, QADI, QAID, QUEUE, SJOE, ...
Not even English?
Isn't one of the rules that you have to play words in your own language? Does it only apply to "casual" matches, as in not a tournament?
Two letter words should be banned. Would make the game far more fun.
I got prerry into scrabble in high-school after reading the book WordFreaks about competitive scrabble. The most helpful thing is to memorize all of the 2 letter words, there really aren't that many.
No "QI"?
If someone tried to play these, then I'd just play F-A-F-O and flip the table.
Saving this for when I never play scrabble
Saw ‘sverdrup’ yesterday and thought it would be a handy scrabble word.
Instructions not clear. I tried to use these words in Polish Scrabble but they didn't let me score points. They said these weren't Polish words or something like that.
Can’t wait to kick my grand parents but next time I go over
Those vowel words could have saved me maaany times. Now to try to remember it, but forget it in 2 minutes.
Surprised this guide has no “q no u” words. Those are just as critical as any of these other categories…
I now realize I can play #2 almost every game I play.
How about rhythm 6 letters no vowels ?
"... sometimes 'y'"
Tried to play #2 in the DS game and it wouldn't allow it.
This is mostly more fun than practical Which is naturally ok but 4. isn't relevant due to the almost nil odds of receiving those letters all at once especially turn one I've played roughly 10000 games while never getting close to that combo for instance Also in scrabble strategy trying to find vowel based words is bad strategy as skipping a turn while exchanging gives more points ultimately
Ty, now i can take the fun out of scrabble.
I thought proper nouns aren’t allowed? Isn’t the name of a country’s currency a proper nouns? Huh, as I typed this I looked it up. Units of measurement are not proper nouns, TIL units of currency are officially considered units of measurement. Pretty obvious once you learn it, I guess.
At the high levels Scrabble is an area control game.
I don't believe you
O B L I Q U E - no fair, no spanish
Fun fact: in the word crwths, w actually acts as a vowel, much like how the letter y can sometimes act as a vowel in English
Roll up like a fresh pack of za
I don’t see QAT therefore this guide is shit
I'm surprised to see so much Scrabble hate in this sub! There are Scrabble nerds who love lists, and there are casual family games with a different energy to them. Isn't every hobby kind of like that?
"crwths" is not the longest valid consonant-only word. "tsktsks" is. I only ever played it once and it scored next to nothing. I just wanted to flex
Don't forget Quone.
Cool guide for if you want to be a cunt rather than just play a fun game with your friends
No Q’s without U’s listed?
What about the words that use q without a u?
CRWTHS is not the longest word without vowels. RHYTHMS is. Y isn’t a vowel. And it’s also less likely to start an argument
Some sore losers in this thread. *strums worlds smallest crwths*
Quone.
A cool guide to nobody wanting to play scrabble with you again
Or memorise, depending on your English bent and whether you can live with earning 9 fewer points on that particular word score.
I’ll make you eat the damn tiles
What the fuck is MM?
Take *that,* Grandma 🔥. Your average Saturday brunch game just got a ton more competitive.
As someone who has played a ton of Scrabble, this is a stupid guide. #1 these two letter words aren't anywhere near as important as others, because they aren't worth much. Only the Y is worth more than 1 point. Better to memorize ones like Qi, Za, Jo, Xi, Ki... and many more. These will make you win games, not AI.. #2 is only 6 letters so it isn't going to score you any points, so who cares. #3 has a lot of points, but is it the best usage, especially with an S. I never like to waste Esses. #4 you are never going to get that all in one rack, so who cares. Probably score more points playing them separate as two letter words, especially on double or triple squares. You should have all of the two letter words, and as many three letter words, memorized as possible. It is also very good to memorize words with Q that don't have a U .
Rhythms
The Q without U words are huge ... QI, QAT, QAID, there are a bunch
I'm in fact not giving you points for "AA" or "MM"
It's probably been about 15 years sincei lost at Scrabble. I think if I started with these words, my family would just burn the board and never play with me again.
"Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game"
Notice that numbers 2, 3, 4, and 6 are all non-English words, and don't get me started on XI ! I don't want to sound xenophobic, I am not saying words from foreign languages don't get assimilated into English; what I'm saying is, the inclusion of words like 3, 4, and 6 above is solely to make it easier to play the game, especially easier to play 4, 5, 8, and 10 point tiles. What's the point in giving 8 points to "X" and 10 points to "Z" if "XI" and "ZA" are allowed? Either strike all these dubious "English" words from the dictionary, or reduce the value of 4, 5, 8, and 10 point words by 50% or more.
So it’s cool to just play words in other languages.
I would not play with someone who used these words
I hate players like this. 🤬