Guest Author - Megan Romer

Scrabble Strategy Guide Number One: Q without U

One of the first strategy tips that any championship Scrabble player will tell you is to learn your "Q without U" words. The letter "Q" in Scrabble is the highest-scoring letter, along with "Z", scoring 10 points straight-up. Unfortunately, the vast majority of words that contain the letter "Q" also require the letter "U". To make things tricky, there are only 4 "U" tiles in the Scrabble letter bag, so one often ends up with the "Q" long after all the "U" tiles have been used. It's also important, say most Scrabble strategists, to release your high-scoring letters as soon as possible without wasting them. Holding a "Q" in your rack makes it highly unlikely that you will catch a "Bingo" (a score using your entire rack).

So what does one do when one draws the "Q" and there is no "U" to be had? A smart player will play one of the "Q without U" words. With one notable exception, all of these words are based in languages from the Middle East and the Asian Subcontinent. That's because in Germanic and Latin languages (English is a little bit of both), "Q" is always followed by "U". Only words that we've borrowed from Semitic and Indo-Iranian languages have free-floating "Q"s. This should be no surprise, think about the Arabic place-names we see in the news so often (Iraq, Qatar, Tiqrit, and so on). With a couple of notable examples of modern English slang, all of the other words on this list are originally from that region. Memorize them and use them well!

Note: Here's the setup:"Q without U" word (plural of word)(alternate spelling of word)-definition

FAQIR (faqirs) (fakir, fakirs) - a Muslim or Hindu religious ascetic or monk

TRANQ (tranqs) (trank, tranks) - a drug that tranquilizes

QAID (qaids) (caid, caids) - a Muslim municipal official or judge

QANAT (qanats) (no alternate spellings) - a system of underground tunnels and wells in the Middle East

QAT (qats) (kat, kats, khat, khats) - an evergreen shrub, used as a narcotic if chewed or steeped into tea

QINDAR (qindars, qindarka) (qintar, qintars) - see quintar

QINTAR (qintars) (qindar, qindars, qindarka) - an Albanian monetary unit, 1/100th of a lek

QOPH (qophs) (koph, kophs) - the 19th letter of the Hebrew alphabet

QWERTY (qwertys) (no alternate spellings) - a standard typewriter or computer keyboard

SHEQEL (sheqalim) (shekel, shekels) - an ancient Babylonian unit of weight and money

Well, that's it for now! Perhaps in the next edition of the OSPD (Official Scrabble Players Dictionary), they'll add some more (my Webster's Unabridged offers qaf, qasida and qibla as valid words) but for now, these are the big ten. Learn 'em, use 'em, you'll be glad you did!