The Y appears in lots of two-letter words:
AY, BY, FY (exclamation of disapproval), KY (Scots word for cattle), MY, NY (to draw near), OY, YA (Chinese pera), YE, YO and YU (a precious jade).
Another good use of the Y is as an end-hook. There are hundreds of words which can have Y added at the end – think of INKY, HANDY, CHUNKY, WEALTHY, CREAMERY or even PREDATORY. There are more unusual ones too. Did you know you can play PLUMY, LOATHY and CINNAMONY? Or GORMY, LAMBY, RESTY, VIEWY and WOOFY? I’ll stop before this becomes a weird remake of Snow White.
There is a group of rather amazing words that begin with Y followed by a consonant – it might sound almost impossible in English, but they do exist, mainly old forms used by Spenser and other writers from centuries past.
Here are a few to surprise your opponent with:
YBET archaic past participle of BEAT
YCLED archaic past participle of CLOTHE (then use a C hook to turn it into CYCLED!)
YFERE together
YGO archaic past participle of GO
YLEM original matter from which all elements are said to be formed
YMPE Spenser’s spelling of IMP
YNAMBU a South American bird
YPERITE mustard gas
YRAVISHED archaic past participle of RAVISH
YSAME together
YTTRIUM a silvery metallic element
YWIS certainly
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.
