The Word Scrabble Pros Can't Spell

Full interview with Conrad Bassett-Bouchard available on my Patreon: www.patreon.co...
full annotated game: www.cross-tabl...
tournament stats and rules: scrabbleplayer...
other games cited in this video: www.cross-tabl...
www.cross-tabl...
www.cross-tabl...
clips from my twitch channel: / axcertypo

[@Manigo1743]

"I before E except before C". That is a good peice of information.

[@nightwishlover8913]

Except that (apparently) there are more exceptions to this rule than exemplars - don't yell at me ! I can't quote the source exactly, but it was quite interesting...

[@javen9693]

When you encounter this, don't challenge. Just extend it into PRU(NEICE)E, the best flavor of Icee

[@limehawk4989]

Someone explain this for the rest of the world please? 😅

[@ciscoortega9789]

Prune Icee (not an actual Icee flavor) ​@@limehawk4989

[@domino14]

I remember Winter once playing TRIMERE* against me in a game in Albany and I didn't think twice about it, even though I already had studied that rack a few times. A couple hours later we were eating some sort of Latino food when I suddenly yell out TRIREME!! the word is TRIREME!! The very fact that it was placed on the board sort of just makes it a word for eternity.

[@Babomomebeo]

It's a word so common, no one bothers to "study" it

[@T1J]

i have watched this whole video and I still dont feel confident that I will remember how to spell this word

[@axcertypo]

I'm sorry. I have failed you.

[@thegodofpez]

It’s crazy. NIECE isn’t tough for me. It’s differentiating nouns and verbs between lexicons. For example, RANSACK is valid as a word in NWL, but RANSACKING# is good internationally (CSW, not in NWL). 🤷‍♂️ This is the best mindfuck# game ever created. EDIT: RANSACKED is good in both lexicons, but RANSACKING is only good in one? Flawed much? /end rant /overthinking

[@YellowSkarmory]

@@thegodofpez RANSACKING being invalid in NWL is bizarre. I'm certain I've seen that before in everyday life.

[@thegodofpez]

@@YellowSkarmory Right!? It’s crazy to me how they choose valid words between dictionaries. I really wish they would just universalize them. ):

[@T1J]

@@axcertypo definitely a me problem and not a you problem 😂

[@PhyYuGiOh]

Hey Josh, really well put together video, this one has ought to bang

[@dinocat8]

I appreciate the visuals for the hard to spell words. Crazy stories too!

[@thegodofpez]

Man I miss Conrad and the Scrabble scene!

[@da_cbb]

dude i miss you, come join us sometime plz :)

[@thegodofpez]

@@da_cbb I plan on it, my brother! It’s been tough for an obvious reason, but I can’t let my $300+ worth of Scrabble materials lay dormant forever. I remember we once had a contest to see who’d get to 1600 first. I lost terribly. 😂 I’m just glad I beat you in a tourney game one time! ❤️ Eva still talks about you. Love you, brutha!

[@thomascorey7284]

Does anyone have a link/quick explanation to the holding/challenge rules? I didn’t know you could draw provisional tiles, not sure I understand haha. Also what’s stopping someone from just holding every play?

[@dinocat8]

You'd probably get beaten up in the nearest alley if you hold every play, so like unwritten rules, maybe?

[@axcertypo]

www.scrabbleplayers.org/rules/rules-20161201.pdf holding every play is suspicious behavior, as you're only supposed to hold something you're considering challenging, so a director could consider it abusive and issue you a warning

[@thomascorey7284]

@@dinocat8 I guess I don’t know what actually happens when you hold the play hahaha. I thought the ppponent couldn’t draw. In that case it seems like strictly an advantage to hold every play lol

[@axcertypo]

@@thomascorey7284 yeah, this is why the rule about drawing provisional tiles changed from 1 minute to 15 seconds. Some think there should be no buffer period whatsoever

[@SAYFVCKFOR100DOLLARS]

dunno how to sto[p

[@javen9693]

someone please for the love of God stop that man

[@javierrodrigo1009]

please he[p

[@limehawk4989]

Hahaha i love that guy so much. A very relatable guy. We're all fallible humans 😊

[@DaveKnott]

The spelling of NIECE is easier to remember if you happen to speak French, in which it is spelled almost the same except for an accent (NIÈCE), but pronounced NEE-ESS.

[@axcertypo]

indeed, this is why I have no trouble spelling it anymore. I mention this in the full interview with Conrad, which is available on my Patreon

[@johnwilder4789]

Facing few better options, I played through a few tiles on the board to phony with *CENNET intentionally at Nationals a few years ago, un-duplicating my E and N and creating a new lane I desperately needed. I reasoned that it would likely stick to the board given the play’s low score (20ish points), the word length (6’s are studied less frequently than other word lengths), and some other factors. It did, and then I luckboxed into NIZAMATE as a natural through the T in my phony. Fast forward to a game last year, I had CEENNT on my rack and could have SWORN *CENNET was a word or that I’d seen it before. I killed like 4 minutes on my clock until I eventually “chickened out.” It was only until a few days later when I realized how close my call with karma had come.

[@Manigo1743]

When they are challenged off the board, that shows that half of the players can spell.

[@ValkyRiver]

What about OUTWIN# in NWL?

[@echoes6092]

nafka is also a word, yiddish origin :) i don't know if it's valid in scrabble dictionaries, though

[@Jkfgjfgjfkjg]

Can you post a link to the controversial discussion?

[@axcertypo]

Gonna keep that one private, even though it was a public discussion. Feels a bit wrong to link it for whatever reason

[@ColdAzIce188]

QI did a segment on how the "I before E" rule actually has more exceptions than words that fit it! kzbin.info/www/bejne/g2jLinifn8t5fJo So if an excuse is ever needed for this... well... English is just nonsense. That pretty much covers it I think haha.

[@ronaldwayne7092]

Thing is, people haven't been taught the entire verse, even the host of QI: I before E Except after C Or when sounding like A As in neighbor and weigh (And he did mention "veil" as an exception.) What do the numbers look like once that's accounted for?

[@ColdAzIce188]

@@ronaldwayne7092 I've heard the extension "I before E, except after C, when they make the sound eee", but just using the show's examples there's WEIRD, GLACIER, CONCIERGE, HACIENDA that all fail both of ours lol. I imagine that adding extra qualifiers narrows the numbers down to some extent, but the overall point is that English has such variety in its (very interesting) etymology that there's really no consistent rule you can apply for spellings.

[@DadgeCity]

​@@ColdAzIce188Glacier is glass-ee-er. The last two are foreign words. I think weird was originally pronounced where-d.

[@Handygamer]

@@DadgeCity Glacier is pronounced something like glay-sher (at least according to MW), and not to be confused with glassier.

[@ronaldwayne7092]

@@Handygamer Glass-ee-er is the British pronunciation. Everyone's right!