No one -- including myself -- will believe this happened.
No one will believe it happened without cheats or hints, except me. Because it's just how it happened. "What word should I start with today? Why not water?"
Just like this. No one will believe me.
This also happened today: First time to get the most difficult (purple) grouping first:
I see today a lot of complaining about today's Wordle:
The biggest complaint: English contains many words that end with "ASTY."
The Free Dictionary offers FIVE "ASTY" words, which in the world of Wordle is many.
I think the complaints stem from two likely sources:
1. People playing in "hard" mode that requires all correct letters to be used, limiting choices.
2. People playing in "hard" mode in their heads only and locking themselves into the trap of limiting their attempts to eliminate consonants.
This, of course, plays into my consonant-first Wordle strategy, and why I'm pointing out my smartypants ways.
Today my performance on Wordle was completely done by luck; I had no letters in the right place until I had the right word. It just happened that as I looked at what consonants were involved and where they might have to lie in the word, "nasty" just came to mind.
Still, locking yourself into using the correct letters on every line, even early on, limits your chances of getting rid of likely consonant starters (the Y isn't a problem here, as always, it's the consonants). It's better not to use the correct letters over and over again; it's better to use words that help you to eliminate consonants. So get the letters right on whatever line you get them, but from then on don't play them until you've eliminated a few consonants first.
(Note I don't necessarily follow my consonant-first strategy strictly here, as I also eliminated possible vowels along the way; that's where the luck plays in.)
First, read here the history of Wordle, so I don't have to repeat it.
Simply put, it's a fun daily, one-shot word game that was recently bought by (cue thunder and lightning) The New York Times.
I only started playing the game a few weeks before the purchase became public, so I'm not as vested in the "original" Wordle, nor have I seen much of a change in the New York Times version.
Others, on the other hand, have stronger feelings.
Some of the feelings include:
1. Wordle is getting harder.
2. Wordle is suddenly using double letters when in the past it avoided them.
3. Wordle is prioritizing American spelling (favor vs. favour) to British spelling. Nevermind that the key of the game is to guess a five-letter word.
These and other factors have causes no shortage of consernation and hubbub among the Wordle long-timers. Thus, and thus.
I'm only really here, of course, to share some Wordle theory. The columnist in the last link laments that others have proven "maths" is the best way to beat Wordle, and since she's terrible at maths and the NYT took over, she's outta here.
Maybe so.
But there are also sound linguistic strategies that come into play. My theory:
Step 1: Eliminate consonants early on. This pairs with
Step 2: Eliminate letter patterns. If, for example, the letter H doesn't appear in the word, it's not likely you'll see such parings as TH, SH, CH, PH, and probably others I've missed in the word. That eliminates consonants without ever having to type them in.
Step 3: Eliminating consonants and letter patterns also decreases your reliance on luck, though luck does still play a part.
And to all the complainers, I'll echo what good friend Dennis Gaunt shared with me about the complaints:
Some truly MAGNIFICENT pearl-clutching here.
