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Is this move legal?

by Anonymous

Your move is 'IF'

The word YETTS is on the board vertically. I add an I to the left of the S making IS and add F below I to form IF. Is this move legal?

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Hi - This is a perfectly valid Scrabble play. As long as the letters you play lie in the same row or column and form a valid Scrabble word, it's fine to make other words in the process.

In fact, that's the name of the game, since all the other words you make contribute to your score. In your case, you'll get the score for IF plus the score for IS.

All the best.

P.S. It's pretty cool that you know obscure Scrabble words like YETTS. If you're reading this post and wondering what on earth YETTS means, a YETT is a Scots term for a gate. So it make sense to have more than one of them ;-)

Comments for
Is this move legal?

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Rules are Rules...
by: Word Buff

Here is the diagram used in the official rules that come with most Scrabble sets...

In particular, check out turn 3 in which PASTE is added to turn FARM into FARMS in the process.

This is a perfectly legal move. I think your argument is really one about the fact that you don't like this rule - but it is a rule nonetheless.

Actually, when you get used to it, you'll find it makes the game a whole lot more fun, since you have to start looking for clever 'hooks' (i.e. letters that you can add to an existing word to form a new word, besides the predictable 'S-plural'.)

My rationale for why it's NOT legal
by: Anonymous

I was playing scrabble with someone and the word on the board was:

H
U
N
T

They wanted to do this:

H
U
N
T
SERVE

I said this was illegal because the word HUNTS was not the word on the board-HUNT was. To me they were, in effect, taking two turns because the "S" in HUNTS was not already on the board and they were basically adding a new word when their turn should have ended with the addition of the "S"-make sense?

Thanks!
by: Anonymous

I've ALWAYS asked the rationale - never gave me a satisfactory explanation.
Obscure Word For the Day: AGA - a goody if you can get it on the board. Opens up many possibilities. Appreciate your blog. Browse for hours.

Answer to your question
by: Derek, aka Word-Buff

Both moves are perfectly legal. I don't understand how it could be argued otherwise, but feel free to ask your opponent to post her rationale to this thread, to see if I'm misunderstanding her.

This has caused so many arguments.
by: Anonymous

The person I play with always tells me I can't do the YETTS move I'll call it, above - says I can only make one word. Then in the same game she did this.

c
o
n
e was on the board

Her move was

c
o
n
en
i
e
c
e

She said her move was allowed but mine wasn't and couldn't explain the difference to me. This has happened many times. I say it's the same as my yetts move. Can you settle this? Thanks!

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