BS: Scrabble conundrum

Subject: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Brian May
Date: 28 Jan 11 - 08:31 AM

Is it right that the Polish version of Scrabble has 15 'Z's and they're only worth 1?

There's only 2 'A's, 1 'E', 1 'I', 2 'O's and 2 'U's . . .

:o)

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: GUEST,Big Norman Voice
Date: 28 Jan 11 - 08:50 AM

ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Brian May
Date: 28 Jan 11 - 10:40 AM

That's an awful lot of Zs Norman - you must have nearly been asleep at the end . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 28 Jan 11 - 10:43 AM

It's a good idea if somebody studied Polish and decided that Z is a very common letter.

I wish the makers of Scrabble for English had done the same thing and then made a tile which contains both a Q and its U.

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 28 Jan 11 - 10:59 AM

leneia.. you might perhaps like to play 'Word Drop' on facebook.. the 'Q' with its 'u' would suit you I guess.

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 28 Jan 11 - 12:28 PM

Jeenia--QU is not a letter...it is most generally a diphthong with the pronunciation of QW.

However, you may be on to something. Each of the most commonly used consonants could be paid with a vowel such that the set might contain the following B, BA, BE & BO. This, of course, begs the question whether BE and similar combinations can be used as stand alone words.

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 28 Jan 11 - 01:16 PM

Z certainly is common in Polish (particularly when including the diacritics Ź and Ż; the combinations CZ and SZ contribute a great deal), but E is much more common still, even if you don't count the Ę with it. Brian, I guess (or even bet) you have fallen victim to an urban legend.

There are better reasons to study Polish than to answer such questions. (Not that I'm really good at it, though.)

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Les from Hull
Date: 28 Jan 11 - 02:37 PM

Scrabble letter distributions

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Brian May
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 06:45 AM

Err, sorry - it was meant to be a little humour - we tend to get SO serious on this part of Mudcat.

As for the QU oh yes! I didn't realise, until it was used on my iPhone copy of Scrabble that 'QI' was a word.

I wish their dictionary was editable, because it really has some weird words and disallows common ones.

Ah well, humour not understood, back to the drawing board . Ho hum.

A big cheerio to all the other Scrabblers out there.

Brian

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 07:17 AM

Among the words that I resent being not being admitted to the Scrabble dictionary are older, but still extant, second and third person forms of verbs: as in, e.g. Biblical style 'thou sayest', 'he goeth', &c. I contend that these must theoretically exist, & should ∴ be admissible, even for more recently coined verbs, so that I should expect an opponent to accept 'phonest', 'texteth'...

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 08:59 AM

I like the Wes Ginny version... All blanks...

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 10:16 AM

I believe the Welsh version of Scrabble follows the dictionary and treats these as single letters: Ch, Dd, Ff, Ng, Ll, Ph, Rh & Th.

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 11:48 AM

Regarding "sayest," "goeth," etc.:

Microsoft's spell checker rejects those words also.

Often it doesn't recognize the subjunctive, either, and flags it as a grammar error.

One of life's minor annoyances.

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 02:29 PM

I'm still incensed that the Scrabble folks have changed the official rules to allow the playing of proper nouns. Wanna see a good example of a reason why? Here you go:

Under the old rules, there were no three letter words in English that could be built by adding a letter before the word "no". Now, there are at five that I know of:

Ano - a town in Ethiopia
Eno - last name of musician Brian
Ino - a town in Alabama
Ono - an island on the Intracoastal Waterway at the Alabama/Florida border
Uno - Spanish for "one", formerly illegal because it's a foreign word but now presumably legal as the name of a popular card game

Sheesh! We still play by the old rules at my house and anyone who doesn't like it is welcome to bring his own board and set up an alternate game in the kitchen.

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 10:36 PM

Gosh, it's been eons since I've played Scrabble--I quit when my son started beating me regularly--but as I recall the rules, proper nouns were not allowed, which should invalidate those words listed above by Bee-dubya-el. Have the rules changed?

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: bobad
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 10:57 PM

"there were no three letter words in English that could be built by adding a letter before the word "no" "

I have been playing Scrabble for a long time and often use the word "ono" -- pre proper noun days. It has always been in the Official North American Tournament Scrabble Word List:
http://kisa.ca/scrabble/index.html

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Janie
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 11:41 PM

You mean to tell me some people follow the rules when playing Scrabble?

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 11:54 PM

Rules???

Like what???

No guns???

(No, moron, like real friggin' words...)

Okay, hmmmmmm??? Lets ee... I gotta R, 2 G's, 2 I's and and friggin' N... Oh what to make???

Bingo!!!

FRIGGIN, you know like frigging???

Oh, then all Scrabble instincts took over and it was war... I mean, that house looked like the DEA had finished with it... Trashed... Furniture over turned... Scrabble letters everywhere...

Moral of the story: Keep Scrabble a fun game... Ain't about the final score but the time you spend with yer opponent (friend)...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 12:18 AM

Janie, playing by the rules is relative. When my wife and I play, we use the dictionary and other cheats. We're not really trying to beat one another. We're trying to hone our game skills so we can kick other people's butts when we play them.

What I really don't like about the new rules allowing proper nouns is that someone can play just about anything that looks like a word and claim it's the name of a street, small town, or whatever and hardly anyone's going to risk penalty points by challenging it. Would you challenge "Krog"? If you did, you'd lose. It's a street in Atlanta. What about "Yertz"? I just made that one up, but if I said it was someone's name, would you risk a challenge?

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 12:26 AM

Absolutely agree BWL. Once allow words which are purely proper nouns & have no other referents, as I gather the Scrabble people have now done chiz-chiz, & you might as well pack up & go home.

~Michael [ a 7-letter word & I claim my 50-point bonus!]~

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 07:06 AM

Erm... Bobert my friend..... <<<<<>>>>> are you sure you didn't mean RIGGIN?????? LOL.

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Fastauntie
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 07:13 AM

The official Scrabble dictionary came into being long after the game itself, so I look on it as a mere convenience rather than an integral part of the rules. While I agree that proper nouns make the whole thing pointless, I've always held that the players can agree beforehand on what dictionary they'll use. My family has usually used the OED, though I'll go along with a Scrabble-specific dictionary if other players insist.

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 08:29 AM

Unless Bobert was the first to go, he will have been using an F that was already on the board. Did you use any double or trippple words/letters Bobert?

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: kendall
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 09:01 AM

In Maine scrabble there aint no word ending in ing.

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Bobert
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 09:15 AM

Well, I did hit a double word score so I think I got 28 friggin points for "friggin"...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: GUEST,Jim Knowledge
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 10:41 AM

I `ad that Hang Sen Charlie in my cab the other day, `im as runs that "Peking Royal Palace" Chinese restaurant in `ackney. It serves "peas and rice" and claims it`s a traditional dish.
`e said, "Jim, we go Rondon container terminal. We pick up Chinese Sclabble game I order flom Hong Kong at the docks."
I said, " Gawd blimey, Mao. Couldn`t they send it by post?"
`e said, "No Jim. Chinese alphabet has ten thousand symbols, it come in four big boxes!!"

Whaddam I Like??

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Tig
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 05:56 PM

Firecat and I have taken to playing scrabble on Facebook.

I keep losing as one of her favourite 'sneek me in' words is QI which is happily accepted.

It's amazing some of the words I've now learnt!

Subject: RE: BS: Scrabble conundrum
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 02:16 AM

Of course you might want an advantage          scroll up and down to find what you want......   and another...... but don't forget to put in the '1' for how max number of words you want    for anagrams