Richard Osman is the latest brainy star to weigh in on how to improve your chances at online game Wordle, which asks hooked players to guess a five-letter word in six tries or less each day.
The letters game is the latest viral sensation taking the world by storm, and has got us all thinking we’re better at the dictionary than Susie Dent herself.
Made by Brooklyn-based software Josh Wardle as a pandemic goof for he and his girlfriend to play, there are now millions of players around the world trying their hand out at the puzzle every day.
Now, Pointless host Richard Osman has handed out a few handy tips to help succeed in the game, which indicates how close a player is to the word using green, yellow and grey tiles.
Chatting to Claudia Winkleman on BBC Radio 2, he admitted he’s never guessed it on his first try, but noted this is extremely unlikely.
‘A one is 2,500 to one, the way it works is, there’s a list of 2,500 words which could be the Wordle on any given day.
‘They’re the 2,500 most common words five letter words in the English language, so there will never be a word that’s crazy, like we haven’t heard of,’ he shared.
Wardle previously compiled a bigger list of 10,000 words which you can take advantage of, which consist of some more obscure words.
But the question everyone wants to know, is what word should we be starting with?
Richard said: ‘I often start with the word ‘aline’ which is not a word it would ever be – because it’s too obscure – but it’s got three vowels in it and an L and an N, which is quite useful as well, it’s got an E in a very good place.
‘You can take advantage of these 10,000 words but know that the actual word will be one that you’ve heard of. ‘
While he thinks getting a successful guess in one is undoubtedly a ‘fluke’ he agreed with Claudia it’s impressive to guess it in three tries.
The host added: ‘I’d say getting it three is a beautiful skill, that’s somebody who you want to have lunch with.’
Richard responded: ‘Yesterday’s one, which we can talk about, I knew after two [guesses] that it ended rick, and then you’ve got three choices, which are brick, trick and prick.
‘So, it’s an utter fluke. Of course, I left prick until last because in America it’s not such a rude word so it’s acceptable.
‘To get it in three, occasionally you’ll know for a fact it can only be one word, but very, very rarely, so you’ve got to ride your luck to get it in two.’
Richard added: ‘If you can get your average between three and four you’re doing very well. if it’s between four and five that’s pretty good as well.’
‘You start with aline? I like that, everyone listening is like, I’m going with Richard. What do you think of stare?’ asked the Radio 2 host.
‘I get it, there’s a couple of vowels in it, but S isn’t used very often as there’s not many plurals, otherwise there would be millions and millions of words – S is a red herring.’
Who knew?
The most common word people start out with is ‘adieu’ which consists of four vowels.
Richard teased: ‘If [it] ever is that, Twitter’s going to go crazy! Audio is another good one, getting those vowels out the way.’
Credit: Original article published here.You can read this post on My Celebrity Life.