American Scrabble

[BridgeCity]

These are just a couple of questions that I'm keen to have answered, so I figured I'd ask here and see if I get an answer.

As we all know, the United States of America spells words differently to other English speaking countries. One of the notable differences between America and New Zealand (and other English speaking countries) is the use of a 'Z' in words instead of an 'S'. Words like Specalise being Specalize etc. Clearly, Americans use the letter 'Z' far more than we do.

So here are my questions

1) What is the value of the letter 'Z' in American scrabble? In New Zealand it is 10 because it is so difficult to use, and it is the most dreaded letter in the whole game.

2) What is the dreaded letter to get in an American game of scrabble? Is there even just one letter that stands out above the rest as the one no one wants to see on their tile-frame?

Yes, I'm a scrabble geek. I could probably have googled this, but I was here when the thought occured to me so I figured I'd ask you lot.

[Trazoi]

Wikipedia knows all - well, at least about Scrabble letter distributions in different language game sets. I'm fairly sure there's only one English edition, but the values change drastically for other languages (Z is only worth one point in Polish Scrabble, for example).

[BridgeCity]

Thanks.

It seems bizare to me that an American set wouldn't change the value and quantity of 'Z'.

[Ozymandias]

I'm pretty sure that in official play variants are accepted. So realize or realise can each be used anywhere.

"Zeal" is a good Z word, by the way.

[BridgeCity]

I'm pretty sure that in official play variants are accepted. So realize or realise can each be used anywhere.

"Zeal" is a good Z word, by the way.

Zeal and Zoo, those words always pop up in games I'm in.

[Mauve Shirt]

One doesn't get the chance to make many "ize" words, they're pretty long. I have gotten "realize" before though. Attached the R to "skate" I think. That was pretty awesome.

[arguskos]

2) What is the dreaded letter to get in an American game of scrabble? Is there even just one letter that stands out above the rest as the one no one wants to see on their tile-frame?

X and Q are the worst, Q more than otherwise, just cause Q is annoying in general.

[Hunter Noventa]

X and Q are the worst, Q more than otherwise, just cause Q is annoying in general.

That's because Q requires a U to go with it 99% of the time. Most vexing.

[BridgeCity]

X and Q are the worst, Q more than otherwise, just cause Q is annoying in general.

There never seem to be any handy 'U's around whenever you get a 'Q'

[Mando Knight]

...Last I checked, a Q in English Scrabble is presented as "Qu," no separate U required. (Q's rarely hanging on to anyone else in the English language except in words that aren't acceptable in Scrabble anyway)

[arguskos]

...Last I checked, a Q in English Scrabble is presented as "Qu," no separate U required. (Q's rarely hanging on to anyone else in the English language except in words that aren't acceptable in Scrabble anyway)

I know for a fact that I have at least one Scrabble set in English that doesn't do that. Guess which one we like playing with?

[Mewtarthio]

...Last I checked, a Q in English Scrabble is presented as "Qu," no separate U required. (Q's rarely hanging on to anyone else in the English language except in words that aren't acceptable in Scrabble anyway)

I've never seen that done anywhere. Must be a relatively new rule.

[Mando Knight]

Maybe it was some other letter-based game, then...

[BridgeCity]

Maybe it was some other letter-based game, then...

I think I've seen that somewhere, but it wasn't in a scrabble game. Possibly upwords?

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I'm pretty sure Boggle has a "Qu" face instead of a "Q".

[Selrahc]

Z is really easy to play for its cost. With both zo and za as 2 letter words you can connect it on to a lot of places on the board.

I'd say that there isn't really a dreaded letter to get in scrabble. Certainly not Q, X, Z or J. I love it when I get those, because on a tightly spaced grid where bingo's aren't going to come into to play then a good play of a high cost letter is going to be the margin of victory. Of course it really is necessary to know the 2 letter words for those. Qi, ex, ax, ox, xu, xi, jo, ja, zo, za. Once you know them you probably won't dread the letters as there is almost always somewhere to offload them.

The general scrabble lists whether the American TWL or the Worldwide SOWPODs generally allow almost any variant spelling you can think of, so the values of the letters really isn't much changed between the two.


The letters I really don't like are probably V's. Doesn't connect as two letters so its hard to leverage its points value very much.

[Archonic Energy]

That's because Q requires a U to go with it 99% of the time. Most vexing.

memorise this list

Spoiler

Show

QI
QAT
QADI
QAID
QATS
QOPH
FAQIR
QADIS
QAIDS
QANAT
QOPHS
TRANQ
FAQIRS
QABALA
QANATS
QINDAR
QINTAR
QWERTY
SHEQEL
TRANQS
QINDARS
QINTARS
QWERTYS
QINDARKA
SHEQELIM

[ninja_penguin]

Yeah, it's boggle that has the 'qu' face.


Also, Qi and Xi are some of the best 'wat' moments you'll ever have in scrabble when you can toss one down on a triple something.

[Eldan]

memorise this list

Spoiler

Show

QI
QAT
QADI
QAID
QATS
QOPH
FAQIR
QADIS
QAIDS
QANAT
QOPHS
TRANQ
FAQIRS
QABALA
QANATS
QINDAR
QINTAR
QWERTY
SHEQEL
TRANQS
QINDARS
QINTARS
QWERTYS
QINDARKA
SHEQELIM

Huh. I'd write half of those with a "k".

[Selrahc]

Huh. I'd write half of those with a "k".

And I'm sure that spelt with a K they'd also be allowable. The word list on scrabble almost always allows alternate spellings, and for Q in particular people hunt out those alternate spellings for inclusion.

[Mando Knight]

I'm pretty sure Boggle has a "Qu" face instead of a "Q".

That might have been it. I know it was a letter-based game with square-ish objects, at any rate.

[BridgeCity]

Of course it really is necessary to know the 2 letter words for those. Qi, ex, ax, ox, xu, xi, jo, ja, zo, za. Once you know them you probably won't dread the letters as there is almost always somewhere to offload them.

memorise this list

Spoiler

Show

QI
QAT
QADI
QAID
QATS
QOPH
FAQIR
QADIS
QAIDS
QANAT
QOPHS
TRANQ
FAQIRS
QABALA
QANATS
QINDAR
QINTAR
QWERTY
SHEQEL
TRANQS
QINDARS
QINTARS
QWERTYS
QINDARKA
SHEQELIM

The thing there is that in New Zealand, or at least in every game of Scrabble I've played, a word is not acceptable if it is not an English word, or at least commonly used. Most, if not all, of the two letter words are foreign and not commonly used enough to be allowed. Maybe I just play by harsher rules due to growing up with my dad, he is brutal at scrabble.

[Mando Knight]

or at least commonly used.

This goes against the very nature of Scrabble. The idea of the game is to show off how many obscure words you can make with a limited set of letters.

[Trazoi]

The thing there is that in New Zealand, or at least in every game of Scrabble I've played, a word is not acceptable if it is not an English word, or at least commonly used. Most, if not all, of the two letter words are foreign and not commonly used enough to be allowed. Maybe I just play by harsher rules due to growing up with my dad, he is brutal at scrabble.

The games I've played usually have the house rule that you have know the definition of the words you use. You can still use weird two letter words if you've got a good vocabulary or you do your homework first but you can't simply memorise a list.

[BridgeCity]

This goes against the very nature of Scrabble. The idea of the game is to show off how many obscure words you can make with a limited set of letters.

We disagree on that then. I feel the point of scrabble is to show how good you are at making decent sized words out of random letters. Introducing foreign words makes the game too easy.

[Archonic Energy]

The thing there is that in New Zealand, or at least in every game of Scrabble I've played, a word is not acceptable if it is not an English word, or at least commonly used. Most, if not all, of the two letter words are foreign and not commonly used enough to be allowed. Maybe I just play by harsher rules due to growing up with my dad, he is brutal at scrabble.

Qi is in the oxford dictionary...
also pick up a copy of the scrabble dictionary from your local bookshop then you can use all if those words

[BridgeCity]

Qi is in the oxford dictionary...
also pick up a copy of the scrabble dictionary from your local bookshop then you can use all if those words

I know, I have the scrabble dictionary, I was talking about the different rules we play under to make the game more challenging. Sorry, I wasn't clear on that.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

We disagree on that then. I feel the point of scrabble is to show how good you are at making decent sized words out of random letters. Introducing foreign words makes the game too easy.

I think that he was being a tad sarcastic.

In my mind, the nature of Scrabble is not knowledge of words as much as it is properly using the words you make. I never forget that example in the Scrabble rules: how playing "Fords" against "Soil" yields a huge number of combos for a lot of points in the end.

[Zen Monkey]

With vowels being common, Z is actually pretty easy with the consonant-vowel-Z-vowel format:
Size
Daze
Maze
Raze
Faze
Haze
Gaze
etc

Of course, all of those are ripe for an S or D to be tacked onto the end by someone next turn.

[shadow_archmagi]

Foreign words that have entered the English language are legit. You know, since the English language is basically a constantly evolving blargh anyway.

For example, type "qanat" into the Oxford English Dictionary and it'll be there. As will "Qi"