A 1 U 1 S 1 T 1 R 1 A 1 L 1 I 1 A 1 7. Lists and Lexicons “A particular nuisance was the angry or disdainful looking up of dubious words in a number of lexicons.” Vladimir Nabokov - Ada To the Scrabble player dictionary knowledge is as basic to expert play as the memorising of openings is to a chess grandmaster or putting practice to the golf pro. The Scrabble player's tactical skills are all dependent on word power. Of course, there are players with a dictionary-like intelligence but little tactical skill, and others who make brilliant use of their natural vocabulary. In the long run, though, the player who knows that you can stick a J in front of AUNTIES, that DENTURES contains three anagrams and that SHTCHIS isn't a bad rack but an allowable seven-letter word, must have an advantage. Tackling the Twos It should take you about a week to memorize the two-letter words, their meanings and extensions. The two’s are to Scrabble players what one-foot putts are to golfers - they should never be missed.
The program or server carries out an exhaustive search of a database of words, to produce a list containing every possible combination of words or phrases from the input word or phrase. Some programs (such as Lexpert) restrict to one-word answers. Many anagram servers can control the search results, by excluding or including certain words. To assist Scrabble players, there is a computer program called Lexpert. One of Lexpert's capabilities is to find all the words that can be built from some or all of.
Make a copy of the Two's list in our List Library and glance at it while watching TV. What’s an AA? A three-toed sloth?
No - rough cindery lava. It’s a noun so it takes an-S. Many of the 121 two letter words will be familiar to you from everyday English. Threading your way through the Threes The next step is to learn the twos-to-make-threes list - those twos which take front and back hooks. When revising them write down two-letter combinations (AD, OO, EL) and test your knowledge of letters before and after (BAD, BOO, BEL etc; ADD, OOF, ELD etc).
Gradually you develop a short list of twos and threes that give you trouble (e.g. CEP, KEB, TYG). As with a language, fluency comes with actually using the memorised words. Knowledge of the twos and threes will come naturally in your first year of club and competition play. Making Forays on the Fours and Fives One strategy for learning the fours is to list them in four groups – • Those extending to sevens (ACHY.ACHIEST, AIRN.AIRNING, BABY.BABYING) • Those which are extended threes (ABAC, ADIT etc) not in group 1. • High-scoring fours not included in groups 1 and 2 (e.g.
FYKE, ZYME) • Blockers, dumpers, and fours to go out with (e.g. UNBE, URAO, VOAR). The initial listing contains no words that are in your active vocabulary (including their extensions). As with the twos and threes, a short list is developed after each revision. A similar system also applies to the five-letter words.
A knowledge of the the fives decides the majority of games in tournament play so they must not be neglected. I generally treat all six-letter words taking an -S as bonus words leaving me with a fairly small group of words which are ‘true sixes’. With the sevens eights and nines we move into bonus territory where a more sophisticated method of memorization is needed. ’s excellent book on four-letter words in Scrabble is a useful aid. He also has a handy tome on the 'fabulous fives' as well. Bonus words - Patterns and Paradigms There are various methods of developing systems of association – each player has to decide which suits him or her.
Here are a few: Anagrams – make lists of words which contain one or more anagrams placing the more common word first as a clue to the more obscure ones e.g. CABARET ABREACT BEARCAT. Some players arrange their bonus lists in alphabetic order e.g.
AABCERT and practice anagramming their target words. Combos – combinations of six or seven letters which yield a bonus by adding a letter (e.g. SATIRE + A = ATRESIA, ASTERIA, ARISTAE, CERTAIN + A = CARINATE ).
We have previously included the 'top ten' combos for seven and eight-letter words in our 'Word Power' section. They are a good starting point.
0 kommentar(er)
