Portland Scrabble Club

It's all about playing words!

The 101 2-letter words

There is no question but that you must know all 101 if you want to play competitive Scrabble®.  Not just to use them yourself, but to recognize whether your opponent is in fact using a legal word.

The table below shows them all, along with which ones can take the addition of "-s".  (It doesn't necessarily mean that it's the plural form of the word - only that adding "-s" makes a legal word.)

26 of them are in gray, as they are common words which don't have to be learned:

[am, an, as, at, ax, be, by, do, go, he, if, in, is, it, me, my, no, of, on, or, ox, so, to, up, us, we]

(However, many of these are uncommon when "-s" is added, so they'll have to be studied later. )

AAs ABs ADs AE AGs AHs AIs ALs AM AN
ARs ASs AT AW AX AYs BAs BEs BIs BOs
BYs DE DOs EDs EFs EH ELs EMs ENs ERs
ESs ET EX FAs FEs GOs HAs HEs HIs HM
HO IDs IFs INs IS ITs JO KAs KIs LAs
LIs LO MAs ME MIs MM MOs MUs MY NA
NE NOs NUs ODs OEs OF OHs OI OMs ONs
OPs ORs OS OW OX OY PAs PEs PIs QIs
REs SH SIs SOs TAs TIs TO UH UM UNs
UPs US UTs WE WOs XIs XU YA YEs YO ZAs

 

There are no 2-letter words with C or V.
There is a 2-letter J-word: JO sweetheart (that doesn't take an -s).
And there is an important set of 5 X-words: AX, EX, OX, XI, XU.
It's important to remember that XI has a plural form XIS, but XU has no -s form.
There are two 2-letter K-words: KA, KI, and both takes -s to make KAs, KIs.
It should be easy to remember the 3 new valuable words, KI, QI and ZA. They all take -s.
5 words have no consonants: AA, AE, AIs, OEs, and OI (& OY), and 3 have no vowels: HM, MM and SH (& BY, MY)!

Organizing the "hard words" by meaning

These 8, with the J, K, Q, X, and Z are just too valuable to forget:

JO sweetheart   (no -s!)
KAs Egyptian spirit
KIs the vital force in Chinese thought
QIs the vital force in Chinese thought
EX -es,
-ed, -ing		 to cross out
XIs Greek letter
XU Vietnamese money   (no -s!)
ZAs pizza

5 are among the 7 common names for the notes of the scale, and they all take "-s":

DOs REs MIs FAs SOs LAs TIs

7 are names for letters of the English alphabet, (a f m n r s x). (You can make a mnemonic sentence for this, like "A fellow may notice really strange x-rays" or something similar you can call on to help you remember.) Except for EX (which naturally requires "-es") they all take "-s":

AYs EFs EMs ENs ARs ESs EX

2 words are "mom and pop" (the third, DA. which just sounds like one, is no longer acceptable):

MAs PAs

17 are interjections. You may not think of them as "real words", but the OSPD does. These may take a little memorizing:

AHs EH HAs HM MM OW SH UH YO
AW ERs HIs HO OH OI OY TAs UM

3 of these have no vowels: HM, MM, SH.
4 end in -H: AH, EH, OH, UH.
11 are reversible: AH/HA, EH/HE, ER/RE, OH/HO, OW/WO, OY/YO, TA/AT, UM/MU
(12 if you count MM)

9 are abbreviated forms:

ABs abdominal muscle EDs education
ADs advertisement MOs moment
AGs agriculture OPs op-art
BIs bi-sexual ELs elevated railways
ZAs pizza    

2 are oldish English:

LO interj. YEs you

5 are slightly slangy:

BOs UNs NA ET YA
pal one no ate you

4 are the names of Greek letters:

MUs NUs PIs XIs

And 2 are fairly familiar psychological words:

IDs psyche part OMs mantra

5 are very useful for having no consonants, (including OI mentioned above)

AAs lava AE one
AIs sloth OEs whirlwind
OI interj. of dismay or pain    

That leaves only 12 hard "foreign" words to memorize:

ALs Asian tree BAs Egyptian spirit
DE from FEs Hebrew letter
LIs Chinese measure NE nee, born
ODs natural force OS bone
PEs Hebrew letter SIs note of scale
UTs note of scale WOs woe

Looking at it this way, you ought to be able to remember the 101 2-letter words with just a few minutes practice each day for a week.

How to practice? Study these charts, take a pencil and paper and try to write out the 101 words! Keep doing it till you can.

"Guaranteed" to add an average of 50 points to your game!

Next step: learn which ones take -s!

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