3 Letter Words

When it comes to Scrabble, you will play far more three letter words and four letter words than any other words. Knowing how to hook those words onto played tiles to make multiple words is a necessary skill in any Scrabble-like word games.

The Most Common Three-Letter Words

Other than THE

The other two most common are END and YOU.

• YOU lets you get rid of an O and a U, which can be crucial if you have duplicated Us in your hand. While duplicate Os aren't that bad, duplicate Us are downright awful. You also use up one of the Us if your opponent is stuck with the Q in the end game.
• END can be useful in the end game, too, when vowels are almost all used, and you need to get rid of consonants.

Three-Letter Strategy

One of the key factors in games like Scrabble and Words With Friends is called rack balance. You want to keep the letters R-A-T-E-S in your rack because they are the most common letters and will help you form bingos more easily. Playing three-letter words, such as 3 letter words with Z or one of the 3 letter words with Q, is a great way to get "nonbingo" letters out of your rack with the ability to get better letters into it.

Some of the three letter words with Z include AZO, ZAP, ZIP, and ZEN, among others. There's a neat little word, too, in ZAX, which is an AX used to cut roofing slates. The X is the best hooking letter in the game, and if you can score it on a triple square of some sort, you can score between 62 and 70 points for a three-letter word! Some bingos don't score that well.

When it comes to 3 letter words ending in Q, there is only one: SUQ. There are only three 3 letter words ending in J: HAJ, RAJ, and TAJ. The J isn't quite as powerful as the X because it's tougher to hook, but these 3 letter words ending in J will help you score fairly well and maintain rack balance.

Of the 1,065 3 letter words, most are mundane, however. Even so, when the board is tight, three-letter words are sometimes your best play, particularly when using up possible space to keep your opponent from being able to play a bingo. Knowing all the 3 letter words with Z and that the list of 3 letter words ending in Q is just one word are two key skills in tight games.