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SCRABBLE® Secrets
Copyright
HarperCollins Publishers
Westerhill Road
Bishopbriggs
Glasgow
G64 2QT
Fourth edition 2020
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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E-mail: puzzles@harpercollins.co.uk
Written by: Mark Nyman
E-book Edition © 09 2020
ISBN 9780008395841
Version: 2020-08-06
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Foreword
1 Two’s Company
2 Less Is More
3 Starters
4 Meaning-less?
5 Pardon Me
6 No Rush
7 Hello Hello Hello
8 Irritable Vowel Syndrome
9 A Fine Mess
10 E by Gum
11 For Your Is Only
12 O My Word
13 U-seless
14 Vocabulary
15 Size Matters
16 Some Real Corkers
17 Time for a Change
18 Hold on to Your Retsina
19 Chuck ’Em In
20 To the Max
21 Leave No Stone Unturned
22 Take the Rough with the Smooth
23 In-consonants
24 Not In-consonants
25 Licence to Thrill
26 Tasty Twosomes
27 Americanisms
28 Monkey Business
29 Slanguage
30 Feathered Friends
31 Abbreviations and Acronyms
32 The Blank
33 Bonus Play
34 Another Retsina
35 Anties in your Panties
36 Seating Room Only
37 Man-alive
38 De-stress
39 Wood You Believe It?
40 Against All Odds
41 Cheats Never Prosper
42 Poker Face
43 Know Your Ologies
44 Suffixes
45 Ess-ential
46 Non-words
47 Play to the Board
48 Blocking and Opening
49 Set-ups
50 By Hook or by Crook
51 Off the hook
52 More Vowel Trouble
53 Sub-mission
54 It’s Only a Game
55 Skulduggery
56 Like-ability
57 Je Ne Regrette Rien
58 Have You Got What It Takes?
59 Juicy J-words
60 Jinn and Tonic
61 Q without a U
62 X-pertise
63 Zo Far Zo Good
64 Enjoy the Moment
65 South African Words
66 More Hooks
67 A Young Man’s Game?
68 More Corkers
69 Hard of Herring
70 Tile Tracking
71 Check Your Averages
72 UK OK
73 Māori Words
74 More Māori
75 Type-cast
76 Never Say Never
77 Off the Record
78 Special Sixes
79 Magnificent Sevens
80 Great Eights
81 Even More Hooks
82 Even More Vowel Trouble
83 Triple Tactics
84 Handy Hindi
85 More Handy Hindi
86 Rising to the Challenge
87 Vanquish the V
88 U Don’t Want to Be with a W
89 Super Words
90 Angry Words
91 Wise Words
92 Fatherly Advice
93 ZZZS
94 Hook, Line, and Sinker
95 Superstitions
96 Do You Feel Lucky?
97 New Additions
98 Eliminate the Page
99 Consonant Dumps
100 It’s Even Colder Outside
101 Think Positive
102 Four Nights in Bangkok
103 Over…..
104 And Out
105 And So to Zed
106 Spiritual Scrabble
107 Play Them at Their Own Game
108 Aspirations
109 ‘Out of the Box’ Thinking
110 You Cannot be Serious
111 The Penultimate is the Ultimate
112 Modesty Forbids
The Two-Letter Words Playable in Scrabble are …
The Three-Letter Words Playable in Scrabble are …
Essential Scrabble Glossary
Worth a Play, Read and Watch
Taking It Further
About the Publisher
Foreword
Mark Nyman is the antithesis of a Scrabble geek! He is a man from the real world who happens to be one of the greatest Scrabble players of all time. In this gem of a book utilising a mixture of mischievousness, wit and masterful expertise he is able to showcase the game as interesting, enjoyable and enormous fun.
I met Mark in 1992 when awestruck by his word game abilities in an international tournament in Bangkok. I will always remember his kindness in addressing my newbie questions at length. He helped to inspire me to devote myself to learning the game and just two years later we faced each other in a professional game in the USA. He won!
Though aimed at the beginner, there is something for everyone in this updated edition of Scrabble Secrets from what to do with too many vowels, and what prefixes and suffixes to look for, to pertinent advice about those valuable tiles the ‘S’ and the blank.
Mark’s skill extends well beyond vocabulary and strategy, however, to such subjects as handling winning and losing, maintaining a poker-face, skulduggery and even the question of cheating. We also find out why he hangs around the bathroom in between important games …
Scrabble Secrets and its 100 plus top tips will delight you and hopefully encourage even the most casual player to consider taking the game more seriously by joining a club or entering a competitive tournament.
Gerry Carter
1998 Asia Pacific Scrabble Champion
Gerry Carter is the originator of the Facebook Forum ‘Scrabble International’
1 Two’s Company
Scrabble study always starts with the two-letter words. The most useful of these are the ones with the highest-scoring letters, i.e. the Q and Z. So let’s begin with the four most useful words in Scrabble:
QILife forceZAPizzaZEGender-neutral pronounZOHimalayan cattleSo if an I, A, E or O is directly below or to the right of a triple-letter square, you could place the Q or Z on it and, if you can go across/down with the same word, a potential 62 points can be picked up, much to the consternation of your opponent!
2 Less Is More
A common myth amongst Scrabble beginners is that the longer the word, the higher the score – this is not necessarily true at all.
You may AGONIZE for as little as 17 if you don’t make good use of the premium squares, whereas as in secret 1 a simple ZA, ZE or ZO might get you 62 on the same turn – be economical with your tiles.
3 Starters
S, C and P respectively are the most common starting letters and together comprise over a quarter of the words in the dictionary. So when moving your rack around it’s a good idea to put them at the beginning – a profusion of words arise from such useful prefixes as:
SEMI-, SUB-
CH-, CO-
POLY-, PRE-
4 Meaning-less?
Whether or not to insist on knowing the meanings of words played is a controversial topic and can lead to lots of arguments.
The official rule is that you don’t have to know them, but some people still think it’s just not right. If you are playing at home and insist on knowing the meanings it can lead to trouble because it’s a moot point how close you have to get to the exact definition. For example, you may play ZLOTY knowing it’s a type of currency, but your opponent may insist on you explaining from which country it originates. If you don’t know, will they let you have the word?
These inconsistencies can cause a fallout, so far better to stick to the ‘not having to know’ rule for peace’s sake. It’s great to find out the meanings, but when there are 162,500 Scrabble words with 9 letters or less, it would take an incredible mind to know every meaning as well as every word.
Personally, I would rather learn a new word than a meaning of an existing word I know (shock horror), but I do enjoy picking up some of the meanings along the way. Former World Champion Pakorn Nemitrmansuk from Thailand struggles with fluent English and doesn’t bother with the meanings of the more outlandish words.
On the other hand, Scrabble is a great learning tool for improving vocabulary, so at the end of the day it’s whatever floats your boat. Just don’t sneer at your opponent if they don’t know a definition unless you think they’d do the same to you.
5 Pardon Me
The six-letter combination PARDON goes with every vowel to make an unusual seven-letter word and thereby give a possible 50-point bonus:
PARDON+ APANDORA – sea bream+ EPADRONE – Italian inn owner+ IPONIARD – dagger+ OPANDOOR – one of an 18th-century force of Croatian soldiers+ UPANDOUR – " " " "By the way PARDON ME is an anagram of POMANDER and I PARDON ME is an anagram of MEROPIDAN – a bird of the bee-eater family – and PROMENADE ap-piers to be an anagram of PARDON MEE.
6 No Rush
Use all of your twenty-five minutes when you play to a clock. Don’t rush into playing the first move you think of – there’s usually a better move you haven’t spotted yet.
It’s also worth giving yourself a couple of extra seconds after placing your move on the board and before hitting the clock to make sure you’re happy with it.
7 Hello Hello Hello
There are no less than thirteen different variations of the word HELLO:
HALLO
HALLALOO
HALLOA
HALLOO
HILLO
HILLOA
HOLLA
HOLLO
HOLLOA
HOLLOO
HULLO
HULLOA
HULLOO
They are all verbs (apart from HALLALOO) and HALLOES, HELLOES, HILLOES, HOLLOES and HULLOES are also okay, so there are forty-five derivatives altogether.
8 Irritable Vowel Syndrome
Too many vowels on your rack can lead to disaster. Generally, the ideal ratio of consonants to vowels is 4:3. So having four vowels is a slight overload but fairly easily remedied – five or more and the alarm bells start ringing.
In this case, it can take two or three turns to restore the balance, and the worst of it is you are unlikely to score well in the meantime since the vowels are worth only one point at face value.
Here are some examples of lovely vowelly words to get you out of trouble quickly:
AEoneAIslow moving shaggy South American animalEAa riverIOmothOIshout for attentionOUmanAIAEastern female servantAUAmulletAUEMāori exclamationEAUa riverEUOIa cry of Bacchic frenzyEUOUAEa Gregorian cadenceIt’s amazing how often EUOI especially comes up – those followers of Bacchus had some fun didn’t they?
9 A Fine Mess
You can easily get out of a sticky situation with multiple As if you know some of these:
AAvolcanic lavaAALAsian treeABASyrian camel-haired clothAKANew Zealand vineALAwingAMAwater vesselANAcollection of reminiscencesAVAPolynesian shrubAWAawayCAAto callFAAfallMAAto bleatACAIBrazilian berryANOAsmall cattleATUAdemonAULAhallABACAPhilippine plantALAAPIndian rhythmALAPA" "ANANApineappleARABAAsian carriageTAATAfatherARAARAgame fishTAIAHAMāori staff10 E by Gum
E is the most common letter and the best vowel to hold. You can really struggle with a dearth of Es in the game – they are its lifeblood – but on the flip side, you don’t really want more than a couple on your rack at any one time. Because there are twelve in the set, you can quite often find yourself with three or four Es – here are a few words to Es the problem:
EEeyeEENeyesEEWexpression of disgustEMEuncleENEevenJEEto move aheadMEEMalaysian noodle dishEEEWexpression of greater disgustEEVENeveningELPEElong-playing recordETWEEsmall caseEXEMEto set freeGELEEjellyENTETEobsessedVEEPEEvice presidentVENEWEvenueDo, however, try and keep one E back on your rack unless the score with it is too good to miss.
11 For Your Is Only
It’s amazing how regularly you can get stuck with two or three Is on your rack and, if you’re not careful, the problem can persist. To dig you out of the I-hole sooner rather than later, try playing the following:
IWIMāori tribeBIDIIndian cigaretteDIVIstupid personFINIfinishHILIscar on a seedIMIDa drugINIApoints at the back of the headIRIDirisIXIAAfrican plantLIRImonetary unitNIDIinsects’ nestsPILIPhilippine treeTITISouth American monkeyWILIspiritAALIIbushy shrubBIKIEmotorcycle gang memberCIVIEcivilianDIXIEcooking potFIXITsolution to a problemLITAILithuanian monetary unitMIRINJapanese rice wineOIDIAfungal sporesTEIIDlizardVISIEto lookYITIEbuntingZIMBIcowrie shell12 O My Word
A surfeit of Os is relatively easy to alleviate, but here’s a soupçon of gems to make it even simpler:
OOwoolOBOship carrying oilONOHawaiian fishOOMold man’s title of respectOORourOOToutOXOacid containing oxygenOLIOdish of differing ingredientsORZOpastaOVOLOconvex mouldingGOOROOguruHOOROOhurrah13 U-seless
The U is by far the least useful of the vowels, unless of course accompanied by the Q. More than one U can really cramp your style and flow, but there are a few unusual multiple U-words that can help:
ULUknifeUMUovenUTUrewardBUBUAfrican garmentHUHUhairy New Zealand beetleKURUnervous diseaseLULUoutstanding personPUPUHawaiian dishRURUowlSULUFijian sarongUNAUtwo-toed slothURUSextinct European oxYUZUcitrus fruitAHURUPacific codBUTUTGambian monetary unitDURUMMediterranean wheatQUIPUIncan recording deviceUHURUnational independenceURUBUbirdMUUMUUHawaiian dress14 Vocabulary
A player’s vocabulary is their ammunition in the game. It’s not the ‘be all and end all’ but the more words you know, the more you should improve. An average person’s vocabulary is between 10–15,000 words, i.e. about 10% of all the words useful to Scrabble, so there’s plenty of scope for improvement.
Don’t be put off at the thought of having to learn 100,000 new words. If you’re willing to give it a go, you can be economical with your study as some words are a lot more ‘Scrabble-friendly’ than others. The best players probably know about half of them and there are only a handful of people close to knowing the lot – and they definitely need to get out more …
15 Size Matters
The two-letter words are the bread and butter of Scrabble, and learning them is by no means an insurmountable task. There are just 127 twos of which about a third are everyday words anyway, so learning two or three a day will crack them all in the space of a month.
Next come the 1347 three-letter words. Only the top players know all these, but it’s surprising how many you will pick up with practice.
The more weird and wonderful 4s and 5s are reserved for the serious player – if you’re starting out on the competitive road, it’s best to kick off by learning those with the high-scoring letters.
The 6s aren’t as important as you might think and probably come last in a study regime. However, there are some fabulous six-letter blockers worth knowing.
The high-probability 7s and 8s are really useful in the search for that treasured 50-point bonus. There are about 34,000 seven-letter words in all and 42,000 eights, but don’t let that deter you. Knowledge of the most likely 250 of each will improve your game immensely.
Nine-letter (or longer) words come up very rarely, though it’s incredibly satisfying when they do. In terms of Scrabble study don’t worry about them – that saves you looking at half the dictionary.
16 Some Real Corkers
Here’s an A to Z of some of my favourite 7s and 8s:
AZULEJOSpanish porcelain tileBUHUNDSNorwegian dogsCONEPATLskunkDWEEBISHquite stupidEUPHRASYannual plantFIREFANGto overheat through decompositionGUNKHOLEto go on short boat excursionsHEITIKIMāori neck ornamentICEKHANAmotor race on frozen lakeJEREPIGOfortified wineKERCHOOatishooLUNKHEADstupid personMRIDANGAIndian drumNUDZHESnudgesOLYCOOKAmerican doughnutPATOOTIEperson’s bottomQUETZALCentral American birdRUDESBYrude personSLYBOOTSsly personTAGHAIRMdivination sought by lying in a bullock’s hide under a Scottish waterfallUNSHRUBDnot having shrubsVEEJAYSvideo jockeysWOSBIRDillegitimate childXERAFINIndian coinYAHOOISMcrudenessZEDOARYAsian stem used as a stimulant