Useful Strategies to Help You Win Scrabble Based on My Own Experiences
posted September 8, 2008 - 8:14pm I do not claim to be a Scrabble expert, but I consistently score 250 points per game and am rarely beaten. That may be a good, rather than outstanding, resume for giving Scrabble advice, but I want to pass along the strategies I have learned to win the game (or
at least be very impressive at it). All this information originates from my mind, not from a website or book - Note this means I may have missed a letter or word combination you didn’t; this was written to give general Scrabble hints, not to be a paragon of Scrabble law. Please feel free to add comments and your own Scrabble suggestions; I can’t wait to learn what you have to teach me!
Organize Your Letters
Before you start to play, you need to organize your letters. It won’t be very helpful to stare at a jumble of letters in no discernable order. Some people simply put their letters in alphabetical order, but I do something a bit different. Separate the vowels and consonants. Now put the vowels in alphabetical order, and then put the consonants in alphabetical order. This method will help you know what vowels and what consonants are available, without having to mentally sort through a mixture of the two.
Which do you think is easier?
Jumbled letters:
A s d f k o i
Alphabetized:
A d f I k o s
Separately alphabetized:
A I o
D f k s
Easy Ways to Make Original Words
Ever look at your Scrabble letters and think, “What on Earth can I spell?” Well, let me share a few ideas on the subject. The is one basic method I have of creating words from my jumbled hand of letters is to think about what letter combinations go together easily.
Examples: able, ai, ally, ance, ation, bb, be, bl, ble, br, ch, ck, cl,cr, dd, de, dle, dr, ea, ed, ee, ei, ence, er, est, ff, fl, fr, ful, gg, gh, ght, gl, gr, ic, ible, ie, im, in, ing, ity, kn, less, lf, ll, lt, ly, ment, mis, nch, ness, oo, ou, per, ph, pl, pp, pro, pr, pre, re, rk, rl, rst, rt, sc, sch, scr, sh, sk, sp, st, str, sw, tch, th, thr, tion, tt, tr, tw, un, wh, wk and wr…
Unless you are super intelligent, you won’t remember all that; after all, it took me around five or so minutes to go through the alphabet on my own and get all those letter combinations – and I am very certain there are some I missed. The best way to remember this strategy of using your letters is to remind yourself to see if any of your letters have the potential to become helpful letter combinations. Some combinations usually begin a word, like bl, pre, and un. Others usually end a word, like ance, ment, and tch. However, keep in mind that many combinations can be found throughout a word: “ck” ends much and is in the middle of quickly; “ou” is in the middle of trout and begins ounce; “tch” ends witch or is in the middle of bewitched.
Let’s use a mock hand of Scrabble to illustrate this method. First, just think about the letters in your hand, not worrying about what space might be available on the board. How the letters on the board might effect your turn will be discussed at the end of the example. You will notice that, usually, longer words can be made using this method. I did my best on the example, but, as in the letter combination list above, I am sure I missed some words that can be created from the given letters.
Your letters are:
P s r c e v o
Separately alphabetized:
E o
C r p sv
Your letter combinations are:
Cr, er, pr, pre, sc, scr, sp
I’ve found words to make with cr, er, pr, sc, and sp. On average, the words using letter combinations have more letters, giving you a higher Scrabble score!
cover
Crop
Crops
over
Pro
Pros
Prose
Prove
proves
Score
Spore
Other words you can also make are:
Cop
cops
copse
Core
cores
Corpse
Cove
Coves
Or
Ore
Ores
Rove
roves
As we all know – frequently to our frustration – you must build Scrabble words off the letters already on the Scrabble board. This often means that a perfectly good word cannot be put down, due to lack of an appropriate letter for it to build off of. Here are some examples of how to play the hand mentioned above. Listed is the “free” letter on the board followed by some possible words.
D: doves, drove, proved, scored
E: cover, creep, veer (Notice you can make “ee” and “er” now)
K: rocks, speck (Now you can use “ck” and “sk” in your words)
N: oven, proven (Proven is the best choice if you have enough room on the board)
Make More from Your Scrabble Letters By Adding to a word on the Board
Many of the word combinations in the section above can be used to increase the value of words already on the board. As the Scrabble rules instruct, you must change the meaning of a word already on the playing surface as you add letters to it; this means it is against the rules to just add “s” to jump to make jumps or “ing” to play to make playing – Though I will admit I don’t always proceed along those lines when playing for fun. If you do take the rule into consideration for your current game, note that not all additions of letter combinations are forbidden; an example would be that milk with “ing” can change the word’s meaning – Milk is often a noun, and the addition of “ing” makes it a verb. This is a great tactic to use when you have letters you want to save for another turn, see a high scoring square on the board available, or just have run out of other ideas. Going to the trouble to make longer words will keep your game going longer, as it will give players more letters to work off of. Look at these examples.
Quick + ly = quickly
Tax + I = taxi
Fed + under = underfed
Use + ful = useful
Useful + ly = usefully
Void + de = devoid
Argue + ment = argument
Anger + ily = angrily
Flow + ing = flowing
Flowing + over = overflowing
For + m = form
Form + per = perform
Perform + ance = performance
Cute + exe = execute
Gin + be = begin
Begin + ning = beginning
Age + s = sage
Sage + u = usage
Usage + sa = sausage
End + dep = depend
Depend + able = dependable
post + ex = export
port + im = import
nation + al = national
ten + se = tense
tense + pre = pretense
Vex + ing = vexing
Vexing + ly = vexingly
Give + n = given
Given + for = foregiven
Foregiven + un = unforgiven
Red + b = bred
Bred + in = inbred
Age + aver = average
View + inter = interview
And + st = stand
Stand + under = understand
Understand + ing = understanding
But + t = butt
Butt + er = butter
Butter + fly = butterfly
Cast + fore = forecast
Troublesome Letters
Let’s discuss the letters that always seem to be difficult to get rid of: F, J, Q, V, X, and Z. If you have a mental list of words you can use with these letters, then you will probably be a step ahead of the competition. I really do mean you to keep a few words in mind, not just one or two, for each letter. If you keep trying to save up letters for one particular word, you might miss out on spelling another with much less effort (not to mention the pitiful words you will spell in the meantime while waiting on those particular letters). I doubt you’ll be able to rattle these off the top of your head, but they let you know that your letters don’t have to be hopeless. Notice that some words appear in the list of more than one difficult letter, as words like quiz have two different difficult letters; these sort of words come in very handy when you draw a combination of the letters under discussion.
“F” Words:
adrift
Afford
Affront
after
before
differ
different
drift
fast
favor
favorite
fed
fee
feed
fetch
fib
fiddle
fit
five
float
focus
foible
folly
food
for
Forest
ford
Form
forty
four
free
From
front
frost
fudge
fungus
funny
of
off
offer
oft
often
refuge
refuse
safe
safety
scoff
scuff
shelf
skiff
taffy
underfed
unfit
waffle
“J” Words:
adjust
eject
jab
jabber
jacket
jade
jag
jell
jelly
jam
jamboree
jar
jarring
jaw
jay
jig
jinx
job
jog
join
joke
jump
just
object
subject
“Q” Words:
aqua
banquet
equine
equip
equipment
mosque
quality
quark
quarry
queen
queer
query
quest
question
queue
quick
quiet
quip
quit
quite
quiver
quixotic
quiz
squad
square
squeal
squid
squint
“V” Words:
above
advice
advise
advisement
avail
available
avenue
beaver
bravo
cave
convey
cove
cover
devoid
dive
dove
envy
evacuate
event
ever
favor
favorite
five
forgiven
gave
give
given
have
hive
invent
invention
invite
invoke
ivy
jive
live
liver
livery
love
never
ovary
oven
over
pave
private
prove
quiver
rave
recovery
river
rove
save
seven
seventy
trove
vacuum
value
vent
verb
very
vice
victim
victor
victory
view
vine
violin
vixen
voice
void
vow
vowel
“X” Words:
ax
box
boxer
exact
exam
examine
example
execute
exempt
exercise
exert
export
exit
fox
foxy
hoax
lynx
minx
mix
next
ox
oxen
pixel
quixotic
sex
sexy
six
sixty
tax
toxic
toxicity
vixen
wax
“Z” Words:
buzz
daze
dizzy
fuzz
fuzzy
gaze
haze
ionize
jazz
lazy
maze
organize
quiz
size
zag
zap
zeal
zealot
zig
zigzag
zinc
zip
zipper
zit
zoo
zoology
zoom
When to Use the Blank Letter Tiles
You just drew a blank tile, and you are probably thinking this will make your next turn very easy. If you use the blank tile now, you are most likely going to wish later on in the game that you hadn’t. When is the right time to use your blank tile? My philosophy is to save it as long as I reasonably can. If using the tile won’t marked increase the value of my turn, then I don’t use it; for me, this usually means I have to reach a double or triple points square by using the blank tile in my word to consider it worth the cost of that tile. Another good reason to use the blank tile is for a letter that is no longer available; i.e., the only “k” in the game has been used already, but you need one now. Also use the blank tile for a letter that isn’t available in the game, such as the second “z” in fuzzy; there is only one “z” in the bag of Scrabble letters.
Using the Letter “S”
Drawing the letter “s” is usually a happy moment for Scrabble players. Some players tent to – against the formal rules – just add their “s” to a word on their next turn. Yes, you do often make high points that way, but why not make the most of your “s” and make an even better point total? First, stop considering this consonant as just the end to a word; this letter can be found in the beginning or in the middle of words as well – simple, spell, school, moss, poster, quest, sassy. Look at the playing surface to see if your “s” will best serve you as a word’s posterior or if you can make a more impressive word with this letter in another position. If you feel your “s” must end a word, think to discover if you can spell off the “s” you just put down. What do I mean? Picture the word dog, spelled left to right, on a Scrabble board; for our purposes, there is nothing else on the board at this time. You have an “s” and wish to make the word dogs. How about checking your letters to see if you can make a word spelling up or down from that “s”? Scrabble rules state you can do this trick – making two words at once – as long as your letters are placed in the same row or same column. So, you can spell dogs, but you can also spell snake from the “s” in dogs on the same turn.
Keep the Game Going
I hate it when a string of bad Scrabble plays has left the board devoid of any good places to spell a word. Sometimes whole sections of the board can be cut off, because there is absolutely no way to build into that space. This usually happens when mostly three and four letter words are used. To keep your game from being slowed, or even halted, by this problem, try to prevent it. Long words help keep the game alive; they open up new areas of the board and give players more choices for letters to build off of. If you play for companionship rather than simply to always win, you might even consider taking a lesser score on a word in order to place the word in such a way that you now will have access to more of the board; if you can spell a great long word on a double word score on the top left part of the board, but the bottom right of the board needs your long word (without the double word score space) to open it up for use in the game, you should think about choosing the option which will make the game last longer. You will often end up cutting your own throat by going for points rather than making more of the board available to play; if the board gets choked up with words and no one can reach free areas of the board, then you will be limited just like the other players.
How to Make the Most of Your Last Turns
[left] At some point, the bag of letters will run empty, and you will be forced to make the most of the letters you have left in your hand, with no relief in sight. You scramble to find the best spots left on the overflowing board applicable to the letters in your hand. By this time, you will most likely need to make a few little words over a few turns, so make the acquaintance of some useful two and three letter words to know. Included are some last-minute ways to rid you of some difficult letters.
Abs
Act
Ad
ads
add
aft
ail
air
am
an
and
ant
any
apt
arc
ark
arm
as
ask
at
ate
awe
ax
aye
bad
bag
bar
bat
bay
be
bee
bed
bet
bow
box
boy
bun
but
by
bye
cab
cat
caw
coo
coy
cry
cud
cup
cut
dad
dam
day
den
dew
did
dig
dip
do
dog
dot
dub
dud
dug
ear
eat
eel
elk
emu
end
era
err
eve
eye
fad
fan
far
fat
fed
few
fib
fig
fin
fit
fob
foe
fog
for
fun
gab
gal
gap
gas
gee
get
gig
gin
go
gob
god
got
guy
ha
had
hag
ham
has
hat
haw
hay
he
hem
hen
hew
hey
hi
hid
him
hip
his
hit
hog
hop
hot
how
hub
hue
hug
hum
hut
in
ink
ion
it
its
ivy
jab
jag
jet
jig
joy
keg
key
kid
kin
kit
lab
lad
lag
lap
law
lay
led
leg
let
lid
lie
lip
lit
lob
log
lop
lot
lug
lye
ma
mad
man
map
mat
maw
may
me
men
met
mix
mob
mom
mow
mud
mug
my
nab
nag
nap
net
new
nil
nip
nit
no
nor
not
now
nun
nut
oat
of
off
oft
on
opt
or
ore
out
own
ox
pa
pad
pal
pan
pat
pay
pep
pen
pet
pew
pi
pie
pig
pit
pod
pop
pot
pox
pro
pug
pun
pup
put
rag
ram
ran
rap
rat
raw
ray
red
rid
rig
rim
rip
rob
roc
rod
roe
rot
row
rub
rug
rum
run
rut
sac
sad
sag
sap
sat
saw
say
set
sex
she
sin
sip
sit
sky
so
sob
sod
son
sop
sow
sub
sum
sup
tab
tag
tan
tap
tar
tat
tax
ten
tie
tin
tip
to
toe
tog
tom
ton
too
top
tot
tow
toy
try
tub
tug
two
up
us
use
van
vat
vet
vie
vow
vex
wad
wag
wan
war
was
wax
way
we
web
wet
who
why
wig
win
wit
won
wow
yak
yam
yap
yes
yip
you
zap
zip
zit
zoo
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Comments
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Great Scrabble tips...
scrabbled thats a word.
Great Strategies
Kristen Malmed
Online Communications Specialist
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