Four-letter words to get rid of awkward consonants

Here are some fantastic four-letter words to help you get rid of awkward consonants:

JIAO Chinese unit of currency

JEUX plural of JEU, a game

EAUX plural of EAU

QUAI same as QUAY

QUEP expression of derision

QUOP to throb

QAID Arabic chief

QADI a Muslim  judge

FIQH Islamic jurisprudence

WAQF endowment in Islamic law

DZHO another spelling of ZO, a yak-cow cross

ZOOT as in zoot suit, a once-fashionable man’s suit

VIVA to give a candidate an oral exam

VIVE long live

VIVO with vigour

VEXT same as VEXED

VIZY to look

WILI a spirit

CWMS plural of CWM, a Welsh valley

TSKS from TSK, to tut in irritation

By Barry Grossman

Barry is a leading UK Scrabble player and winner of several tournaments. He is the author of Scrabble for Beginners (Chambers), Need to Know Scrabble, Scrabble – Play to Win and The Little Book of Scrabble Trickster. He has also contributed to numerous other books on the subject of words and word-games, has been a series champion of Channel 4’s Countdown, and has written four comedy series for BBC Radio 4. He lives in Hertford.All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.

Related Articles

Other Articles

The letter N

The N, being one of the one-point tiles, clearly figures in a lot of bonus words. You can think of dozens of words beginning with EN-, IN-, CON-, UN- and other prefixes. It comes up in endings like -MAN, -MENT, -TION and -ING. But just a few words of warning… Read More

Keep on the right track

Experienced players develop the habit of tile-tracking; that is, they start the game with a grid of the hundred tiles in a corner of their scoresheet, and cross them off as they are played. Doing this, you can quickly see if there are a lot of a particular letter to… Read More

You don’t get two goes in a row

We’ve mentioned in a few of these tips that it is not a good idea to place a vowel next to a premium square, or to open up a space where your opponent can get a high-scoring bonus. But why does it matter so much? Surely, you may wonder, I… Read More