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Tips for Playing Word Games

Scholasticus K
The concept of vocabulary and the capability of making permutations and combinations of letters, words, and sentences has promoted the development of games based on vocabulary. Read on to know some tips for playing these word games.
In the year 1938, architect Alfred Mosher Butts, invented and innovated a game known as Scrabble that achieved huge success in the 20th century. This game basically concentrated on the vocabulary and spelling skills of the player.
A huge variety of games that are related and based on vocabulary have been played for a long period of time. Many of these games are highly demanding and need the player to know the meaning of words, their synonyms, antonyms, number and sequence of letters, etc.
The basic requirement for playing these games is that the player should have a good knowledge of the English language.

Tips
Vocabulary and spelling games involves the unscrambling of a senseless combination of letters that are given to the player. In other games, like Crossword or Scrabble, the player is required to make a word that is synonymous to a given phrase.
In some games, the player has to unscramble the letters of the word and fit the whole word in a particular matrix, within the given columns and rows. Some tips that you can use while learning how to unscramble words are mentioned next.
  • The 1st step is to find out the number of letters, vowels, verses, and consonants that are present in the unscrambled word.
  • At times, you may get words that end with a peculiar pronunciation, like 'ing' or 'ly', or start with a particular pronunciation like 'un' or 'uni'. Figuring out such words is pretty easy, as they are most commonly used.
  • If this does not work, then one can also figure out if the word is a noun, an adjective, or a verb by individually analyzing the letters. At times, if the word falls under the category of nouns, adjectives, or verbs, then one can figure it out by using the first letter as a consonant and the second one as the vowel.
  • Trying out permutations and combinations of a group of vowels and consonants also helps a lot.
  • The last probability, or rather combination, that you can try out is placing the first and the last letter of the word and then placing the remaining letters in between.
  • Usually, with the help of the given letters, one can easily make out if the word is in a superlative degree, or is a pronoun or a verb. The key is to count the number of letters, vowels, and consonants.

Advantages of Playing Scrabble
  • Regular players develop a huge volume of vocabulary, and also a great deal of memory.
  • Another very good advantage is that the players tend to develop a highly versatile amount of words and meanings. This proves to be very useful while communicating in any manner, be it in writing letters, conversing, mailing, and also while talking on the phone.
  • The players not only know the words and their spellings, but they also tend to learn the synonyms and antonyms.
  • Along with knowing the words, a habit of using the words and phrases at the appropriate time and in the correct context is also developed.
  • The game play also increases your tendency to think and analyze situations quickly.
  • Since these games develop a person's personality and brain power, many lawyers, executives, politicians, and general public speakers play them daily.
  • A very important fact is that these are excellent party games and are especially played as a birthday party games.
It is more appropriate to predict the word on the basis of your vocabulary, rather than to actually try to get at the word. Hence, the best way to win a round of Scrabble is often to expand vocabulary and know every word and meaning, that you come across.
Another option is to keep a dictionary handy while reading books, as it helps in gaining knowledge of the usage of the word, its different forms, and synonyms and antonyms. Help for unscrambling words is also found widely on the internet in the form of help sites, various softwares, and some prominent techniques that are followed by the professionals.