So let’s begin with all the two-letter-words starting with a. I still believe it can be done! The key is in finding an appropriate mnemonic to help us remember arbitrary sets of letters. Too much: a and o each have sixteen possible suffixes! The Mnemonic Method Every prefix has a number of possible suffixes. Suddenly it’s not so terrifying, is it? The data has some structure. To make it easier to fit on a page, I tried to compress the information, producing a table like this: I had already given up with the problem, and I was writing the list out on paper to be kept in the game box. Committing that to memory is better left to sauvants who can happily recall the order of a shuffled deck of cards. That’s 124 words! More than a hundred arbitrary letter-pairs, with no connecting pattern and most of which I don’t recognise. (source: SOWPODS, used for British tournament play) How hard can it be?Īa ab ad ae ag ah ai al am an ar as at aw ax ay ba be bi bo by ch da de di do ea ed ee ef eh el em en er es et ex fa fe fy gi go gu ha he hi hm ho id if in io is it ja jo ka ki ko ky la li lo ma me mi mm mo mu my na ne no nu ny ob od oe of oh oi om on oo op or os ou ow ox oy pa pe pi po qi re sh si so st ta te ti to ug uh um un up ur us ut we wo xi xu ya ye yo yu za zo But I’ve had plenty of opponents object to this, saying that if I really want to play like that I should memorise the list. Personally I’m all for having the 2-letter-word-list on display during play to help us out of tight spots and to keep things fair. And then (inevitably) looking on Google for a list of valid words. ![]() Sadly most of us only know a handful, and beyond that we’re guessing. Knowing exactly which two-letter words exist gives a player a sizeable advantage because it opens up tight corners of the game board and allows them to run two words side-by-side. Photo remixed from an original by Caitlin Regan. It’s about taking a load of ugly data and hacking around with some scripts to refine it into something I can commit to memory.
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