A guessing game that rewards a plan
Hangman looks like luck, but it is mostly about choosing letters in a good order. The word is hidden behind a row of blank slots, one per letter, and the category above it tells you what kind of word it is. Each letter you try either fills in every slot where it appears or costs you a miss. Run out of misses and the figure is finished, and the word is shown.
Because a correct letter fills every copy at once, the best guesses are the letters most likely to appear in the word, not the ones that would feel clever. A good opening can show you the shape of the whole word within three or four guesses.
The first few guesses
Start with vowels. Almost every English word has at least one, and E is the most common letter of all.
- E first, then A. Between them they appear in most words. If neither shows up, try O, then I.
- Then the common consonants. T, N, S, R and L show up in a huge share of words. They are cheap guesses with a high chance of a hit.
- Watch the length. A long word almost always has several vowels. A short one may have only one, so after a single vowel lands, switch to consonants sooner.
- Use the category. In Countries, A is everywhere. In Birds, words often end in -OW, -IN or -ER. In Musical instruments, you will see a lot of O and N.
Reading the pattern
Once a few letters are in, stop thinking about letters and start thinking about words. Look at where the found letters sit and list the words in the category that fit.
Doubled letters are strong clues. A double T in the middle of a short animal word points to OTTER. A word ending in -ING is less likely here, because most words here are nouns, but endings like -ER, -ION, -ANT and -OON are common.
Pay attention to the letters that missed, too. If you tried S and it was not there, the word is not plural and does not end in -ESS. Every miss rules out a whole set of words, so it still teaches you something.
A worked example
Say the category is Weather and you see seven blanks. You open with E, and it misses. A lands in the second slot, and O lands in the sixth. You now have blank, A, blank, blank, blank, O, blank, with one miss used.
Now list the seven-letter weather words you know. TORNADO has an A, but in the fifth slot, and its Os sit second and last. MONSOON has no A at all. RAINBOW fits both letters exactly. Rather than guess more vowels, test the word: try R. When it lands in the first slot, the rest follows with I, N, B and W, and the round is won with a single miss.
Working from the category this way often saves two or three misses compared with guessing letters by frequency alone. The frequency order gets you started; the category and the pattern finish the job.
When to use a hint
Hint fills in one hidden letter, every copy of it, but it costs a miss and draws a stroke just like a wrong guess. It is best used when you are stuck between two or three words and a single letter would settle it, not as an opening move. It is switched off on your last miss, so it can never lose the round for you.
Common mistakes:
- Guessing rare letters early. J, Q, X and Z are rarely in the word. Save them for when the pattern points straight at them.
- Ignoring the category. The clue rules out most of the dictionary. Use it before every guess.
- Repeating a sound with a different letter. If C missed, K is not always a safe next guess. Think about the actual words in the category instead.
Moving through the levels
Easy gives you ten misses and words of four to seven letters, with the whole drawing still to come. It is a good place to learn the order of strong opening letters. Medium allows eight misses on words of six to nine letters, and starts with the base and post already drawn. Hard leaves you only six misses, the head, body, arms and legs, on words of five to thirteen letters.
Your streak counts rounds won in a row. Walking away from a word after you have guessed a letter ends the streak, so choose your level before you start. A good goal is a streak of ten on Hard without a hint.
