For once and for all I’m going to learn all the 2’s

So, you bought a Scrabble game for your children this Christmas, or, someone bought you one & you remember playing as a kid but there is so much more to the game today...

(source www.freewordfinder.wordpress.com) 

Check out my other blogs about SCRABBLE

So, you understand the basics but if you learn a few more words the game will completely change. If you learn some of the 2 letter words your scoring potential will increase massively.  There are 124 2 letter words currently allowed (as of January 2018 in the CSW15) but if that scares you, like any other task, break it down into smaller manageable portions. You probably already know about 20...DO, MY, AS, AT etc.

Then list the 10 biggies and learn them...

AX    EX    JA    JO    OX    QI    XI    XU    ZA    ZO

Here is the power of the biggies, SHARD was already on the board and you play ZA.  You have scored 64 points for just that tiny little word.  You might initially think “but that’s not proper Scrabble like we played when I was a kid”.  However, you need to change and think “The game has evolved like any other game and I’m going to change too”.

Here's that massive score explained:

Note the dark blue is a triple word score. You play the word ZA (Green circle no. 3). You created 3 words so your score breaks down as follows:

1.      (Red Circle) ZA is (10x3)+1 = 31

2.      (Blue Circle) AR is 1+1=2

3.      (Green Circle) ZA is (10x3)+1 = 31

Total 31+2+31 = 64

There are many ways that people learn the words, some cross out the ones they know and learn the rest, some use flash cards, some just stare at the whole list but here’s a good way.  Below is the whole list broken into 6 sections, one per day for the next 6 days and a revision day. Set yourself the target of “For once and for all, I’m going to learn the 2’s this week”. They are all in alphabetical order, just learn them all rather than taking out the ones you know.  Why?  Well it’s sometimes handy to run through all the letters that go after M, but if you took out the ones you knew and then learnt the list you might forget MY.

So, for once and for all I’m going to learn all the 2’s.  Here's a printable list, you are free to print, circulate and share as long as you do not remove my details from the bottom of the page. (right click, open image in new tab and print)

Sometimes it's handy to know what a word means (but you don't have to know) because then you might be able to figure out what else you can add on, e.g. if it takes an S or if it's a verb you can add ING.  So here's all of the 2's EXPLAINED.

Enjoy

John The Captain Ryan