Word Scramble Help - Spelling Words Well

[Pages:2]Word Scramble Help

Here are a few of my favorite tips for solving scrambled word puzzles. I hope these will help you, too!

1. Focus on the most difficult consonants first. Some of the least-used consonants in the English langue are Q, Z, J, X and V. If the word you're trying to solve contains one of these letters, try to find other letters that can be put next to it.

Example

In a very basic example, consider the letters T, J, E and U. The hardest consonant is J. Very few words end in J. So one of the letters probably comes immediately after it. In this case, it would be either E or U. Try different combinations in which JE or JU appear together.

It won't take long to see that the word must be JUTE, a strong fiber used to make rope or cord.

2. Look for common consonant combinations. This includes consonant blends and clusters such as bl, br, cl, cr, dr, fl, fr, gl, gr, pl, scr, sl, sm, sp, str, r and more. Remember to check consonant digraphs as well, including ch, dg, gh, ng, ph, sh, th, wh and more.

Example

Let's look at the letters L, B, E, J, M, U. Using tip #1 above, we should first focus on the J. The J may not be the first letter in the word, but it won't be the last. Either the U or the E will follow it. That leaves three consonants, L, B and M. The B and L could go together, or even the MBL. With this word scramble help, you should be able to spell JUMBLE.

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3. Look for common word endings. Many words end in ING, ED, ION or ER. There are also common combinations such as GHT or TH or TCH.

Example

Consider the letters, C E H S A B T. You'll want to look at the letter B because it is the most difficult of the consonants. You can see several consonant combination possibilities and word endings, SH, CH , TCH, and ES.

It shouldn't take long to come up with BATCHES.

4. Consider the theme of the puzzle list. If you know the theme of the page, brainstorm about the words you already know in that category. Jot them down. Then see if any of the words you wrote might be on your list of scrambled words.

Example

Suppose the theme of your page was HOLIDAYS, and you needed to unscramble the letters E U T O S M C. You could list well-known holidays like Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day. You could also list related words for each one. Eventually you could spell the word COSTUME for Halloween.

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