How to make a word with these letters

There has been a boom in the mobile gaming business with the release of mobile-based word games such as the Scrabble-like Words with Friends. These games allow an ‘on the go’ gaming experience, where anyone with a competitive edge can go head to head with friends from anywhere. These games are great, you can pick them up and put them down as and when you want to; your board will be there intact, just as it was when you left it.

In this article we are going to discuss some of the strategies you can adopt to make sure you can ‘make a word with these letters’.

Short words don’t mean low scoring words

When you are looking at the tiles you have been dealt, trying desperately to make a word with these letters, it is easy to try to make the biggest word you can in order to obtain that optimum score. This is not always the best approach; there are a number of short words that can yield some very pleasing scores. Some of my favourite are QI, AX, OX, XI, XU and ZA. There are over a hundred two letter words that can be used, but only a handful give scores as high as these. If you combine these small words with a multiplier in the game, you could be looking at a very high score.

Find the end to spell out the beginning

There are a number of common word endings that you should look for within your tiles when trying to make a word with these letters; by identifying these you could highlight possible beginnings that exist either on the game board or elsewhere in your letters. These common endings include ‘ING’, ‘EST’, ‘TION’, ‘IER’ and ‘IEST’. If you find one of these, run over all the words with that ending in your head and see if this provides a high scoring opportunity. It may be worth looking up the words that contain these common endings, you will want to memorise as many as possible to make this strategy more effective.

Use an ‘S’ to create a double word score

If you have an ‘S’ in your arsenal, you have a superb opportunity to score. You will want to save this until the right time when you can maxmise its effect. The beauty of the letter ‘S’ is that you can use it to pluralise a word already on the board (if you are lucky and clever you will try to get this letter on a multiplier square as this could multiple both words). By doing this you get the score of the word you just pluralised. You are not finished yet though; you now can continue and create your second word starting with (or ending with) the letter ‘S’. This can be a very high scoring opportunity if you place it the ideal position.

Other two word score opportunities

There are other instances where you can top or tail an existing word on the board with a letter; this creates the start of another word, giving your score a real boost. Consider something like the word ‘FAKE’ lying on the board in front of you. If you have a word like ‘DATED’ in your tiles, you can use the ‘D’ at the beginning (or the end for that matter), making ‘FAKED’, as the springboard for your new word. Similar to the ‘S’, this is a great manoeuvre for making a big score.

Practice is the key

This may or may not be the most obvious tip to you, but practice is the key to learning the various new words and strategies to allow you to ‘make a word with these letters’. If you play games with people of various skill levels, you will only increase your ability with every game that is won or lost. When someone takes you down with a massive score with a three letter word, you are likely to remember it.

Hopefully this article has been helpful in your quest to be able to ‘make a word with these letters’. If you want more tips, tricks and strategies, alongside various tools to help you with your word games, like Scrabble and Words with Friends, you should visit our articles on letters and words.