A good way of spotting bonus-scoring words on your rack – and one that sometimes works well with the less common letters – is to look for compound words; two words joined together to form a new word with the meaning of both. They often add up to a handy seven or eight letters in length – just right for bonuses!
Some three- and four-letter words are especially good for making compounds. BIRD can make BLUEBIRD, BIRDCAGE, KINGBIRD (an American fly-catcher which you might even extend into MOCKINGBIRD!). WOOD could turn into WOODCUT, WOODMICE, REDWOOD, or SEA could become SEAFOOD, SEASHORE, UNDERSEA.
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.
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