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How to Play Scrabble

With the return of 50s and 60s fashion also come the return of trends and hobbies of those decades. Many kids are starting knitting or crocheting, just like Grandma taught them.  Other kids are abandoning their gaming devices to pursue the art of fishing or building model planes. Just as these hobbies are making a return so are classic board games such as Scrabble.

According to Wikipedia, the Scrabble game was invented by Alfred Butts in 1938 as a variation of the word game Lexico. Over time this idea had been bought over by external persons until the company called Hasbro, Inc. bought the rights over in 1999. The game remained the same in concept but of course the rules had change over the years.

If you haven’t played Scrabble yet, it’s time you start learning! These easy steps will show you how to play Scrabble as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Scrabble Requirements

You will need to purchase the game of Scrabble, which can be found in most retail stores or online. You’ll then have to round up some soldiers – WikiHow suggests that 1 – 4 players will be enough. It will be advisable to have a dictionary on hand for if someone wants to take a chance with the word-building as well as a calculator and writing tools to tally up the scores.

Scrabble Playing Time

Usually an average of ~50 minutes

How to Play Scrabble

  1. You will have to mix up the letters in the bag provided in the Scrabble box and determine who goes first. Each player draws a letter and the one who is closest to ‘A’ will be first.
  2. Pass the tile bag around and let every person choose 10 tiles each. Other players may not see your tiles. Put them onto your rack so you can see them.
  3. The person who goes first will build the first word, starting on the ‘Start’ block of the board. He then has to draw the amount of letters again to make up his original 10. So if he played a 3-letter word, he has to draw 3 letters again.
  4. After a word is built, you will have to add up the total numbers of the letters found in that specific word. These numbers are found on the bottom of your tiles.
  5. Some blocks give bonus points and will enhance your score. If a letter is placed on a block that says ‘Triple Word Score’, you multiply the letter’s number that is placed on that block by three. This is the same for ‘Double Word Score’.
  6. You can also build on other players’ existing words in order to use their letters to enhance your score. If a player put down ‘BOOK’, you can add ‘SHELF’. You will then receive the score equivalent to ‘BOOKSHELF’.
  7. The player who has the highest score is the winner.

Scrabble Game Variations

Scrabble is a game of language and logic. You can make it even more interesting by trying to build specific words that you have chosen beforehand. If a player builds this word, he or she may receive a bonus score.

Scrabble Video Tutorial