The strange, the bizarre and the unexpected

[lalatan]

I once had a discussion with a native Serbian speaker. She told me that in school she was told that S and R are also vowels, and pointed out that they could be used that way in English as well -- you could pronounce them to connect consonants with no trouble at all. Her example, if I remember it correctly, was "Srpska". Anyone can say it despite the lack of any "vowels" in the first five letters.

That's interesting, bwt. My paternal grandfather was from the Czech Republic (born in Mnichivo Hradiste). I checked out some of the language and there are some crazy consonant blends (as seen in name of the city) and all kinds of diacritics. (One of their Olympic athletes was a Roman Srble some marks above the surname. It was pronounced Sheberlay) I just left it at that; no pt in learning all that as most Czechs probably know English. Sounds like the Serbs have some of the same stuff in their lingo.

Russ, you're welcome.

[RussDNails]

The Scrabble link is a great find lalatan. Plan to print this out and memorize as many as I can with the hope they are accepted on Wordtwist. CRWTH and PSST are accepted. I was really surprised there are so many! Thanks for posting.

Cheers,

Russ

[bwt1213]

I once had a discussion with a native Serbian speaker. She told me that in school she was told that S and R are also vowels, and pointed out that they could be used that way in English as well -- you could pronounce them to connect consonants with no trouble at all. Her example, if I remember it correctly, was "Srpska". Anyone can say it despite the lack of any "vowels" in the first five letters.

[lalatan]

I also like CRWTH and PSST which as far as I know are the only 4+ letter English words without a vowel.

SHH and HMM are the only 3 letter words I know of without a vowel but I don't play 4 x 4 so I don't ever use these.

NTH might also work on 4 x 4.

I became curious about words with no vowels some time ago and found this:

https://scrabble.merriam.com/words-without-vowels

I was amazed there are so many, although many longer words have a y in them. According to this y is a vowel sometimes and sometimes not (I recall from elementary school the vowel list: a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y. But I was never taught why it's sometimes y.)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/word...%20or%20beyond

[floppers]

I call Obi Wan Kenobi (the dog), Doobie for short...I don't think the offspring know the vernacular...

[RussDNails]

I always get a chuckle out of DOOB, DOOBS, DOOBIE, and DOOBIES. All available on the same board if you find it........

I also like CRWTH and PSST which as far as I know are the only 4+ letter English words without a vowel.

SHH and HMM are the only 3 letter words I know of without a vowel but I don't play 4 x 4 so I don't ever use these.

NTH might also work on 4 x 4.

[DonGuy47]

My favorite is OUTSIN, as if it's a contest. Close second is SNOUTIEST.

[FelixTheCat]

I've seen it a few times, but ANUSES always amuses me. I can't imaging any circumstances, other than this game, where I would need to use that word!

[BoggleOtaku]

MATEYNESSES was unexpected

[lalatan]

I just played this, 1 of my favorite words I've found:
CRINGEWORTHINESSES POST.jpg

[lalatan]

That's a beaut. It reminds me of 1 of my favorite finds: PERNICKETINESSES (the British equivalent of persnickety). There must be a board where we can find PERNICKETIEST or even PERSNICKETIEST. BOLO

While collecting best/longest word records in 4x4 yesterday (for something different) I laughed when I found this:
PERNICKETIEST POST.jpg

The search is promptly over. Thanks Wordtwist!

[floppers]

the mind boggles...

[bwt1213]

Strange, bizarre, and unexpected, all right. Talk about a score variance! I played both boards today. Spike got the big word after my first play and before my second. I didn't find it the first time around and did the second, but that wasn't the whole reason for the difference in scores. Anyone else have anything similar?

Game Results

YOUR STATS:Total points: 655 New record!
Total words: 98 (46 common,12 wide,10 rare,30 ultra rare)
Best word: UNCONVERTIBLENESSES (36 pts.)
Longest word: UNCONVERTIBLENESSES (19 letters)

PUZZLE STATS:
Played: 4 times
Average Score: 304.6 points
Average Words: 51.6 words
High Score: 509 points by bwt1213
Most Words: 101 words by bwt1213
Best Word: UNCONVERTIBLENESSES (36 pts) by Spike1007
Longest Word: UNCONVERTIBLENESSES (19 letters) by Spike1007

[Spike1007]

lalatan, thanks for the congrats! I started out last month only going for new words on the board. I started out strong, but realized that I wasn't finding enough to keep my average up. I fell back on clicking & did a lot more of that than I like. Now I'm back to new words only. I have no doubt that you could beat my score (maybe even break 45) if you wanted to.

[Brisul]

As far as strange, bizarre and unexpected, I never thought that when I finally got my monthly average up over 1000 I would have any uncertainty about getting a top three spot in the score charts. Amazing.