How to memorize the two letter Scrabble words!

Here’s an interesting Scrabble fact: If you know all the two letter words, and your opponent doesn’t, you are at an immense advantage. The game is hardly fair. Not because they all score a lot of points, but if you DO have a high-scoring word on your rack, the two letter words will help you find places to put it. When I play with someone who doesn’t know them all, I insist that we have the list out and available to us both, otherwise it seems unfair to play.

When I wanted to learn them, I found a great website (trussel.com) that broke them down in a way that I could understand. And thanks to that website, I now know them. What follows is my take on Steve Trussel’s method. All credit to him for the inspiration. Cite cite cite.

There are 107 of these words. That seems like a lot, but shortly it will seem much more manageable. What I recommend is to have a list of them somewhere (at the end of this lesson I’ll include a pdf of a wallet-sized copy of the list) and about once a day or so, when you are in a boring meeting, or between activities, or even while watching a show, writing them down as best as you can, and checking your work. Just once a day or so, just try, even if you don’t know them all. And look at one of my lessons a day, rereading as you need to. And in a couple of weeks, you will know them all. And even if you only know 106 of them – that’s still going to help your games a lot.

Lesson 1: You are almost a third of the way there!

Great news! You ALREADY KNOW a lot of our two letter words! I’ve highlighted the Common Words below. We may disagree on what is “common”, and that’s fine. Adapt as you like. So don’t be intimidated – be empowered. You are already a great deal of the way there!

AA	AB	AD	AE	AG	AH	AI	AL	AM	AN	AR	AS
AT	AW	AX	AY	BA	BE	BI	BO	BY	DA	DE	DO
ED	EF	EH	EL	EM	EN	ER	ES	ET	EW	EX	FA
FE	GI	GO	HA	HE	HI	HM	HO	ID	IF	IN	IS
IT	JO	KA	KI	LA	LI	LO	MA	ME	MI	MM	MO
MU	MY	NA	NE	NO	NU	OD	OE	OF	OH	OI	OK
OM	ON	OP	OR	OS	OW	OX	OY	PA	PE	PI	PO
QI	RE	SH	SI	SO	TA	TE	TI	TO	UH	UM	UN
UP	US	UT	WE	WO	XI	XU	YA	YE	YO	ZA

Lesson 2: Notes and Letter Names

Sing with me: “Do, a deer, a female deer! Re, a drop of golden sun…” The musical notes are all two letter words:

DO

RE

MI

FA

SO

LA

TI

DO

The names of letters are often two letter words! If you can say the alphabet out loud, you can learn all of these!

AY	BE	DE	EF	EL	EM	EN	AR	ES	EX
A	B	D	F	L	M	N	R	S	X

(Note – Pedants will point out that AY and BE don’t actually mean the name of the letter, but I will respond the point is to memorize the two letter words, and this will work!)

Here is where we are at after Lesson 2:

AA	AB	AD	AE	AG	AH	AI	AL	AM	AN	AR	AS
AT	AY	AX	AY	BA	BE	BI	BO	BY	DA	DE	DO
ED	EF	EH	EL	EM	EN	ER	ES	ET	EW	EX	FA
FE	GI	GO	HA	HE	HI	HM	HO	ID	IF	IN	IS
IT	JO	KA	KI	LA	LI	LO	MA	ME	MI	MM	MO
MU	MY	NA	NE	NO	NU	OD	OE	OF	OH	OI	OK
OM	ON	OP	OR	OS	OW	OX	OY	PA	PE	PI	PO
QI	RE	SH	SI	SO	TA	TE	TI	TO	UH	UM	UN
UP	US	UT	WE	WO	XI	XU	YA	YE	YO	ZA

Lesson 3: High Value Words

Now we are going to learn the two letter words featuring the highest point tiles. The mighty Z, Q, and J each get one two letter word – make them count!

QI	Voice in Chinese Thought
ZA	Pizza
JO	Sweetheart

The letter X is amazing. It gets a two letter word for every word. The common words take the vowel at the beginning, the uncommon ones take their vowel at the end.

AX	The thing that chops down trees
EX	The person you used to date
XI	A greek letter
OX	The big farm animal with the horns
XU	A Vietnamese money unit

The letter K is not as many points as the Z, Q, and J, so it gets two words.

KA	Egyptian for “soul”
KI	Voice in Chinese Thought, like QI

And finally, we should point out that the letters C and V don’t get ANY two letter words, because they stand for “Cow Vomit.”

Here’s where we are at after Lesson 3:

AA	AB	AD	AE	AG	AH	AI	AL	AM	AN	AR	AS
AT	AW	AX	AY	BA	BE	BI	BO	BY	DA	DE	DO
ED	EF	EH	EL	EM	EN	ER	ES	ET	EW	EX	FA
FE	GI	GO	HA	HE	HI	HM	HO	ID	IF	IN	IS
IT	JO	KA	KI	LA	LI	LO	MA	ME	MI	MM	MO
MU	MY	NA	NE	NO	NU	OD	OE	OF	OH	OI	OK
OM	ON	OP	OR	OS	OW	OX	OY	PA	PE	PI	PO
QI	RE	SH	SI	SO	TA	TE	TI	TO	UH	UM	UN
UP	US	UT	WE	WO	XI	XU	YA	YE	YO	ZA

Lesson 4: Interjections and Greek and Hebrew Letters

Oh! Ow! Sh! There are lots of interjections that count in Scrabble – picture a friend or parent saying them as you read. Yes, that includes “ut!”

AH	AW	EH	ER	EW	HM	LO	MM	OH
OI	OW	OY	SH	UH	UM	UT	YA	YO

Do you remember what fun we had with the letters of the English Alphabet? The Greeks and the Hebrews get to play, too!

Greek:	MU	NU	PI	XI	XU
Hebrew:	FE	PE

Here’s where we are at after Lesson 4:

AA	AB	AD	AE	AG	AH	AI	AL	AM	AN	AR	AS
AT	AW	AX	AY	BA	BE	BI	BO	BY	DA	DE	DO
ED	EF	EH	EL	EM	EN	ER	ES	ET	EW	EX	FA
FE	GI	GO	HA	HE	HI	HM	HO	ID	IF	IN	IS
IT	JO	KA	KI	LA	LI	LO	MA	ME	MI	MM	MO
MU	MY	NA	NE	NO	NU	OD	OE	OF	OH	OI	OK
OM	ON	OP	OR	OS	OW	OX	OY	PA	PE	PI	PO
QI	RE	SH	SI	SO	TA	TE	TI	TO	UH	UM	UN
UP	US	UT	WE	WO	XI	XU	YA	YE	YO	ZA

Lesson 5: Slang

Do you use words and expressions like brunch, low key, or binge watch? If you don’t, somebody you know does, and these terms were once considered slang. If you watch really old tv shows (Sorry, “television programs”) you’ll see that what we call pizza was once pizza pie with the same inflection you’d use for “apple pie” or “cherry pie.” So come join me in the world of two letter slang terms!

AB	Abdominal muscle		EX	The person you used to date
AD	Advertisement		JO	Sweetheart
AG	Agriculture		MO	Momentum
BI	Bisexual		NA	No
BO	A pal		OK	… yes, Scrabble counts it
DA	Father		UN	One
ED	Education		WO	Woe
ET	Past tense of eat		ZA	Pizza

And here is where we are at after Lesson 5:

AA	AB	AD	AE	AG	AH	AI	AL	AM	AN	AR	AS
AT	AW	AX	AY	BA	BE	BI	BO	BY	DA	DE	DO
DA	EF	EH	EL	EM	EN	ER	ES	ET	EW	EX	FA
FE	GI	GO	HA	HE	HI	HM	HO	ID	IF	IN	IS
IT	JO	KA	KI	LA	LI	LO	MA	ME	MI	MM	MO
MU	MY	NA	NE	NO	NU	OD	OE	OF	OH	OI	OK
OM	ON	OP	OR	OS	OW	OX	OY	PA	PE	PI	PO
QI	RE	SH	SI	SO	TA	TE	TI	TO	UH	UM	UN
UP	US	UT	WE	WO	XI	XU	YA	YE	YO	ZA

Lesson 6: The final list

So when we started, you were looking at an intimidating list of 107 words to memorize! And at this point, even if you can’t write down the ones we’ve done so far perfectly, you are getting better every time. We are now down to our final lesson – a final list of obscure words, some of which you already know, but may not have realized that they count! Learn these last ones, and you are done!

AA	Rough, cindery lava		LI	Chinese unit of distance		OS	A bone
AE	One		NE	Formerly named		PO	Chamber pot
AI	Three toed sloth		OD	Hypothetical force		SI	Musical note
AL	Kind of tree		OE	Whirlwind		TA	Goodbye!
BA	Soul		OM	A mantra		TE	Musical note
GI	Martial arts garment		OP	A kind of art (Op-Art)

And here is where we are at after Lesson 6:

AA	AB	AD	AE	AG	AH	AI	AL	AM	AN	AR	AS
AT	AW	AX	AY	BA	BE	BI	BO	BY	DA	DE	DO
DA	EF	EH	EL	EM	EN	ER	ES	ET	EW	EX	FA
FE	GI	GO	HA	HE	HI	HM	HO	ID	IF	IN	IS
IT	JO	KA	KI	LA	LI	LO	MA	ME	MI	MM	MO
MU	MY	NA	NE	NO	NU	OD	OE	OF	OH	OI	OK
OM	ON	OP	OR	OS	OW	OX	OY	PA	PE	PI	PO
QI	RE	SH	SI	SO	TA	TE	TI	TO	UH	UM	UN
UP	US	UT	WE	WO	XI	XU	YA	YE	YO	ZA

Final thoughts

Okay, so that’s the list! Go over lesson 1, and spend a day or two writing down all the words you know, and checking the master list. Then go over lesson 2, and do it again, etc. In a couple of weeks, you will either know them all, or know almost all of them! And watch what happens to your scrabble game!

Some things to notice:

• There are no two letter words with C or V
• The letter X makes a two letter word with every vowel
• The all-vowel two letter words are AA, AE, AI, OE, and OI
• The no-vowel two letter words are BY, HM, MM, MY, and SH
• The letter M begins a two letter word with every vowel, and Y, and also M itself!

I hope you enjoyed this way of learning the twos! Thanks again to Steve Trussel!