Pocket Games
Wordle in English
Wordle is five letters and six guesses, but the game is mostly decided by your first two words: they are not there to guess the answer, they are there to rule letters out. Understanding that is the difference between closing in five and closing in three.
The rules
There is a secret five-letter word and you have six guesses. Every guess must be a real word; once submitted, each letter is coloured:
- Green: the letter is there and in the right place.
- Yellow: the letter is in the word, but somewhere else.
- Grey: the letter is not in the word.
The keyboard below the grid is coloured along with the letters, so the ones you have eliminated stay visible without having to remember them. On Pocket Games the backspace key sits on the left and enter on the right; on a computer you can use the physical keyboard.
The record saved is the lowest number of guesses you have solved a word in. A game in progress is saved: you can close the app halfway and pick it up later.
The first word
There is no point "trying to guess": the first word is a tool, and the right choice is the one covering as many frequent letters as possible. In English the most common letters are e, a, r, i, o, t, n, s, l, c, and most five-letter words have two vowels.
Good openers cover three vowels and two frequent consonants: AROSE, RAISE, IRATE, SLATE and CRANE are all solid, and all valid in the game’s dictionary. There is only one real rule: never repeat a letter in your opening word. TEETH looks fine and is not, because the E takes up two squares to tell you one thing.
The second word: this is where you win
This is the guess most people waste. After the first you have a couple of yellows or greens, and the temptation is to try a plausible word using all of them. That is nearly always a mistake.
If the first guess left a lot of letters still open, choose the second word to cover five new letters, ignoring the ones you have already found. Two words with no letters in common cover ten different letters: at that point you know almost everything, and the four remaining guesses are more than enough.
Move on to "plausible" words from the third guess, once the field has narrowed.
What to do with yellows
Yellow is the most valuable information and the most badly handled. It tells you two things: the letter is there, and it is not there. Putting it back in the same position on your next guess is pure waste, and it happens to everyone at least once a game.
If a letter is yellow in second position, try it in fourth or fifth, not third out of caution: moving it as far as possible is what maximises the information.
The traps of English
- Double letters. Words like sheep, jelly or comma have a repeated letter, and the repetition is never flagged explicitly. If you have ruled out every plausible letter and nothing fits, the answer is usually a double.
- The endings. English five-letter words very often end in -s, -y, -er or -ed. Pinning down the last letter early halves the field.
- The awkward letters. J, q, x and z trip people up, and so do the clusters: once you have an H, think CH, SH, TH and WH, because a lone H in the middle of a word is rare.
Frequently asked questions
How many guesses do I get?
Six, with five-letter words. The record saved is how many you used in your best game.
Can I enter a made-up word to probe for letters?
No: the guess has to be a word in the dictionary. It is a limit that makes the game more interesting, because your probing word has to be chosen among real ones.
Is the word the same for everyone, like the original Wordle?
No, each game picks a new one, so you can play as often as you like without waiting for tomorrow.
Are there hyphens or apostrophes?
No, just plain five-letter words with no punctuation: whatever you can type on the game’s keyboard.
More games to try
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