My goal is to get a 1700 WESPA rating in Scrabble by 2030. Currently, I am at 1619, so that will require some hard work. I have limited time and energy, but I know mastering those pesky 3s is fundamental.
The 2024 Collins Scrabble Dictionary has 1351 valid three-letter words, around 200 of which still haven’t migrated to my long-term memory. In my experience, you need to play a 3 up to three times for it to stick. Thankfully, creating mnemonics helps, not only to remember 3-letter words, but to shore up memory in general. My memory has dropped off precipitously in the last two years. At first, I was going to schedule a brain scan to see if I have glioblastoma, but then I remembered I’m turning 40. All joking aside, 40 is a widely accepted marker of memory decline, though I forgot where I read that, ha.
I’ve stolen a number of memory aids devised by others, but I have better luck using the ones I come up with on my own. Here’s one of mine, if you can follow it. All the consonants in SWIM, BIG DAFT VINY KNIGHTS are front hooks for -ae (thus: sae, wae, mae, etc.) For me, that vivid phrase is much more memorable than remembering each of those 3s discretely. Likewise, the consonants in HANK’S PEWTER BOWL front-hook onto -ye (hye, nye…). The first letters of the words, BIG HUNGRY WALRUSES SNAG FISHDAILY, front-hook onto -ey (bey, hey, …). And so on. Grouping words is also effective. In my mind, ONY and OXY go together, as do GAU and GAW, WAB and BAW, NYM and NIM. Learning just one 3-letter word by itself is much harder than learning multiple ones in some sort of schematic. In any case, here are my most troublesome 3-letter words, all of which I hope will have migrated to my long-term memory by the end of 2028. Enjoy your Monday! (Not that I expect such cognitive overload as this list to help much.)
ALB
ANS
ARY
ATS
ATT
AVI
BAS
BAW
BOK
BYS
CAF
CAG
CAL
CID
CIG
CIT
COL
DAG
DAH
DAL
DAP
DEG
DEL
DEV
DIT
DOB
DOD
DOL
DOP
DUM
DUN
DUR
ECH
ECU
EHS
EIK
ELD
ELT
ERF
ERG
ERK
ERM
ERN
FID
FIL
FIZ
FRA
FUD
GAK
GAN
GIB
GJU
GON
GOR
GOS
GOX
GUB
GUE
GUL
GUP
GUR
HAN
HIC
HOX
HUI
HYP
JOW
KEA
KEB
KED
KEF
KEP
KEX
KHI
KUE
LAH
LEI
LEK
LEP
LEU
LEV
LOS
LUD
LUM
LUN
LYM
MAC
MAK
MEE
MES
MEU
MHO
MIG
MIR
MOG
MOI
MOL
MON
MOT
MUT
NEB
NEG
NEK
NEP
NID
NIE
NIS
NOH
NOO
NUG
OHM
OIK
OKA
OLM
OMS
ONS
OOM
OOT
ORF
ORS
ORT
OUD
PAC
PAK
PLU
POA
PUD
PUH
PUL
PUR
PUY
PWN
PYX
RAI
RAS
RAV
RAX
REH
REM
REO
REW
RHY
RIN
RIT
ROC
RUC
SAB
SAL
SAN
SAR
SAU
SAV
SEG
SEI
SEL
SER
SEV
SIB
SIG
SIK
SOH
SUK
SUR
SUS
TEC
TEG
TEL
TET
TID
TIG
TIK
TOD
TUN
TUP
TWA
TYG
UDS
ULE
URB
URD
UVA
VOG
VOL
WAB
WAP
WOF
WOP
WUD
WUS
XIS
YAD
YAG
YAR
YEX
YEZ
YOB
YUG
ZEK
ZHO
ZIZ