Try for longer words. They are worth more.  A 2800 player once told me, “Spend your time looking for the longer words, and while your brain is searching for your longer words, your fingers can type the shorter words that jump out at you.” Great advice;  I only wish words would just jump out at me!

Search While Typing. So you saw one or two words and you’re typing them in.  At the same time, do some multi-tasking and have your brain move on with looking for new words.

Go For It! If a word jumps out at you but you’re not sure if the letters connect to make it, just go for it.  It will take less time to type it and try the word, than it will to look to see if the letters connect properly.

If you’re not finding words, trying making some up. Ideally, you should keep typing all the time. Look for and type in letter  combinations that might be words.  Especially focussing on using the colored tiles. If you’re going to make wild guesses, may as well use the colored tiles for a bonus. The only problem with desparately trying to make up words is the 400 word limit.

Watch the word list! If you’re not frantically busy typing in 100+ points words, then it’s wise to occassionaly check the list of submitted words to see if your opponents are.  If they found a gold mine, maybe there is some gold left in it.

More useful suffixes

EYE LESS NESS ORA ERN/ERNE IRL LINE

ERN/ERNE: ern/erne tern/terne eterne externe intern interne internee fern hern quern

More useful prefixes

EYE SUN

Start using common letter combinations to make words. If you see ‘E’, ‘A’, and ‘T’, all adjacent to each other, then you can immediately enter the words

eta ate tea eat tae

Five words for the price of one! What a deal! I’ve gotten this combo down so well that i can enter it at lightning speed.

Similar patterns.  Again, you’re getting bonuses when you see these letters clumped together.  Think of it as 2 to 5 words all for the price of finding one. And while your fingers are busy typing in the words you know, your brain can be moving on with looking for your next words.

Learn to associate letters with words:

If you see a bunch of ‘S’s, ‘T’s, and ‘E’s all clumped together, you may try to connect them visually to make words.  Alternatively, you could just type in a bunch of words that might work from the mess that’s clumped togher. Often times, I won’t bother trying to connect all the letters I see, but rather just go for it without connecting; So what if I fail; it took less time to type a word and fail, than it took to check if the letters could be connected to make the word I was looking for.

Ss Ts and Es : sestet tsetse testee testes testees settee settees

Es Ns Ts and Rs: enter entree entente ern erne tern terne eterne rente renter reenter

Watch out for the 400 word limit. Have you ever been frozen, that is, not able to enter any words? Perhaps you’re a victim of the 400 word rule. Click here for more info.