Curing Consonantipation

In any session there will be at least once when you are staring at the depressing sight of 7 consonants, without even a Y which can be be used like a vowel.

In such situations you hope to be able to play four of your tiles by playing CLUNG around a U on the board. Try to play as many of your consonants as you can.

For example if you have CGLNMTZ and can score 14 points for CLUNG or use the Z to score 33 points for ZIG you should probably play CLUNG even though it is a much smaller score. Maybe you will still get a good score for the Z later.

If you play ZIG and draw just two tiles to CLNMT there is too big a risk that you will get two more consonants and have the same problem next time.

You could be lucky and get two vowels. It even feels like you MUST get some because you think you are looking at so many of the consonants in the bag. However there are 54 consonants, so even if you discount the 7 you are looking at on your rack, there are 47 other consonants and only 42 vowels (44 if you count the two letter Y’s.) So in the words of Clint Eastwood: “Do ya feel lucky punk?”

Sometimes you cannot use any of the vowels on the board so you will probably need to change, but there are several words of 3 letters or more that have no vowel and no Y. If you are lucky you might be able to play one of them. Technically there is even one word of 7 letters with no vowel or Y, but as you need to use a blank as a K to play TSKTSKS you can’t really claim you had 7 consonants.

The following is a complete list of all the words of at least 3 letters which do not have a vowel or a Y and that you can play without using a blank:

BRR Used to indicate that you are cold

BRRR Used to indicate that you are cold

CRWTH An ancient Celtic musical instrument

CRWTHS Ancient Celtic musical instruments

CWM A deep basin on the side of a mountain

CWMS Deep basins on the side of a mountain

CWTCH To cuddle up

GRR An interjection to express anger or annoyance

GRRL A girl who plays an aggressive feminist style of punk music

GRRLS Girls who play an aggressive feminist style of punk music

GRRRL A girl who plays an aggressive feminist style of punk music

GRRRLS Girls who play an aggressive feminist style of punk music

HMM Used to express thoughtful consideration

NTH Pertaining to an indefinitely large ordinal number

PFFT Used to express a sudden ending

PHPHT Used as an expression of annoyance

PHT Used as an expression of annoyance

PSST An interjection used to attract attention

PST An interjection used to attract attention

PWN To dominate or humiliate an internet gaming opponent

PWNS Dominates or humiliates an internet gaming opponent

SHH An interjection requesting silence

TSK To utter an exclamation of annoyance

TSKS Utters an exclamation of annoyance

TWP Dim-witted or stupid

Those words might cure your consonantipation. Unfortunately that can turn into vowelitis later in the same game. Isn’t it frustrating when that happens while your opponent appears to have had a nice balance of letters the whole time?

Happy Scrabbling Patrick