Word shapes: how English words are put together

A scramble or a wheel looks like chaos until you remember that English words are built from a small set of familiar pieces. Learn to see the pieces and the chaos sorts itself.

Endings come first

A large share of English words end in one of a few groups of letters. Whenever the tiles allow it, look for them before anything else:

-ING, -ED, -ER, -ES — the endings of verbs and comparisons. If you see an I, an N and a G, set them aside together.
-LY turns adjectives into adverbs; -NESS and -MENT make nouns.
-TION and -SION close many long words; on the top floor of Word Scramble they are worth checking every time.
-LE after a consonant (TABLE, CANDLE) and -Y after one or two consonants (HAPPY, STORMY).

Note that our answers are base forms. In Mystery Word the answer will not be a plural or a past tense, so a final S or ED is unlikely in the answer, even though such words are accepted as guesses.

Letter pairs that stick together

Some consonants almost always travel in pairs: TH, CH, SH, PH, WH, CK, NG, QU. A Q nearly always needs a U. If a wheel has a C and an H, CH is probably part of more than one word. At the start of words, look for ST, SP, SC, TR, PR, BR, GR, CL, BL, FL.

The vowel rhythm

English words rarely stack more than three consonants or more than two vowels in a row. When you lay out tiles, alternate: consonant, vowel, consonant. Common vowel pairs are EA, EE, OO, OU, AI; rarer ones such as UO or IA are a hint that you are building the word wrong.

Double letters

Doubles hide in plain sight: LL, SS, EE, OO, TT, FF. In a five-letter guessing game it is common to forget that a letter can appear twice. If the marks leave you with four confirmed letters and no candidate seems to fit, try doubling one of them.

Putting it to work

Scan the letters for an ending or a pair and set it aside.
Split the rest into consonants and vowels.
Try the most common rhythm and read the result aloud.
Shuffle and repeat — a new order shows new pieces.