How to place tiles on the board

If a word such as YES was placed across the board, could another player add FEW down the board to makes EYES, therefore starting the new word above the original word? Like this...

F
E Y E S
W

My understanding was that you could only add to another word by starting or ending at that letter?


For some reason, many people think this move is somehow illegal. Not only is that a perfectly legitimate move, but it is why serious Scrabble players learn hundreds of unusual front hooks. (A 'front hook' is a letter that goes in front of a word to form a new word - just like your E+YES example).

I once saw a game where the winner won by spotting the very unlikely front hook of PACIFY to OPACIFY (meaning to make more opaque) in the dying stages of the game ;-)

So yes. Your move is perfectly valid. Well-spotted.


P.S. You didn't ask how to score a Scrabble play like this, but just in case you were wondering, you get the score for both of the words formed in this move (i.e. FEW + EYES).