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Why E Is Worth One Point

Three short lessons on counting words: how the letter values in a famous word game came from counting newspapers, the law that most words are rare, and why every language needs its own bag of tiles.

For grown-ups, from what CorpusForge teaches children at Spark & Anvil.

  1. Lesson 1Counting the newspaper
  2. Lesson 2Most words are rare
  3. Lesson 3Every language its own bag
At the table · two or more, 8 or older

Count a page

You'll need: one page of a newspaper or book, a pencil and paper.

  1. Pick one paragraph. Each person takes a few letters to count.
  2. Count how many times your letters appear.
  3. Put all the letters in order from most to least common.
  4. Give the top letter 1 point and the rarest 10. Do your values match the game's?

Print the guidebook (all lessons + the table activity) →