Back to Basics

One of my previous blogs was devoted to 5 letter words that have 4 vowels. However for the less experienced scrabbler there are probably more opportunities for keeping their rack balanced by playing a 4 letter word with at least 3 vowels. There are 99 words that fall into that category. It feels as though at least one of these words is used in every game I play. They are almost like the basic building blocks of scrabble. Do you know all 99 of the words that have been used to build this wall?

ACAI AEON AERO AGEE AGIO AGUE

AIAS AIDA AGUE AIDA AINE

AITU AJEE AKEE ALAE ALEE ALOE

ALOO AMIA AMIE ANOA AQUA

AREA ARIA ASEA ATUA AUAS AULA

AUNE AURA AUTO AWEE BEAU

CIAO EALE EASE EAUS EAUX EAVE

EEEW EIDE EINA EINE EMEU

EOAN EPEE ETUI EUGE EUOI EURO

EVOE HIOI HUIA IDEA IDEE

ILEA ILIA INIA IOTA IURE IXIA

JIAO KAIE KUIA LIEU LUAU

MEOU MOAI MOOI MOUE NAOI OBIA

OBOE ODEA OGEE OHIA OLEA

OLEO OLIO ONIE OOSE OOZE OUMA

OUPA OUTA OUZO PAUA QUAI

RAIA ROUE TOEA UNAI UNAU URAO

UREA UVAE UVEA VIAE ZOEA

Some of you may have noticed in the previous blog how many words have been adopted from other languages. English has always done that, but when they have been in use long enough they no longer seem foreign. Imagine that you are transported back to the 18th century. Having nothing better to do you steal a march on Alfred Butts, the real inventor of Scrabble, by pretending to invent it yourself. As usual you pick up a bunch of vowels, so you play ARIA. "You can’t have that" they say. "We’re not going to play your new game if you allow Italian words!"

Answers to the last quiz: KERATINS, NARKIEST, BEATNIKS, SNAKEBIT, BEARSKIN, INBREAKS, SKINCARE, SNACKIER, EINKORNS, NONSKIER

Since this blog has been on 4 letter words with vowels the quiz will celebrate the most useful four letter word. So all these 7 letter words have EUOI in them:

D – E – I – O – S – U – V

E – I – G – O – R – T – U

E – G – H – I – O – R – U

A – D – E – I – M – O – U

E – H – I – N – O – S – U

E – I – N – O – P – T – U

E – I – M – O – T – T – U

E – I – M – O – S – T – U

E – I – L – L – O – R – U

E – G – G – I – O – S – U

Cheers Patrick