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Ideas / Fun / Puzzles
Word puzzles and games
     
Sections:
 Introduction
  Hangman
  Word Chains
  Word Squares
  Target
  Word Searches
  Products
  Logic
  Links
   
Related pages:
 Crosswords
  Wordplay


INTRODUCTION

Puzzles and games connected with the English language.

Products related to word play:
Book (word games) ; Book (puzzles and quizzes)

The Oxford Guide to Word Games
Author: Tony Augarde
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: May 2003		    

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HANGMAN

Somebody thinks of an English word or phrase (eg: HANGMAN) and writes down a space for each letter (eg: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ). The person who is playing then says a letter of the alphabet (eg: "A"). If this letter appears in the answer, it is written down in the correct position or positions within the word (eg: _A _ _ _ A _ ). If a letter is chosen which does not appear in the answer (eg: "T"), then an extra line is drawn in a simple picture of a man being hanged (see below). It is also possible to guess the whole word at any stage (eg: CAMERAS), but if it is wrong another line is drawn in the picture. The player wins if he or she guesses the word correctly before the picture has been completed. You can find links to some online versions of hangman at: http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Games/Hangman. One popular version of the game uses 11 lines and is drawn as follows:



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WORD CHAINS

Start with any 4-letter word, such as WORD.
Change one of the letters to make another word. For example, change the last letter from D to E to make WORE.
The next person does the same, but cannot change the letter that was changed most recently. For example, it is OK to change the first letter to make the word BORE, but not to change the last letter to make WORM (because the last letter has just been changed).

You lose this game if you cannot think of a proper word which has not been used already. For example: A: WORD - B: WORE - A: BORE - B: BONE - A: ZONE - B: cannot think of a word and loses the game.

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WORD SQUARES

Think of a 4-letter word such as WORD and try to make a "word square" in which the same words read across and down. For example:
WORD
OVER
REDO
DROP
If you find this easy, try 5-letter word such as WORDS:
WORDS
OPERA
REBEL
DRESS
SALSA
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TARGET

Someone thinks of a 9-letter word and places the letters randomly in a 3x3 grid:



How many words can you find which meet these conditions?
- each word must contain the letter in the middle (H in this example, so CARROTS is not allowed)
- words must contain 3 or more letters (so HE is not allowed)
- each letter can only be used as many times as it appears in the grid (so R can be used twice, but HOOT is not allowed)
- no proper nouns (THOR is not allowed - this is the name of a god of war, starting with a capital letter: Thor)

100 words (including plurals) are shown on the answer page - how many of these can you find?
For the answer page, click here.

Possible variations of this game:
- do not allow plurals
- use an 8-letter or 7-letter word (leave the missing squares blank)
- allow words which do not contain the central letter
- words must appear in a certain dictionary
- impose a time limit

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WORD SEARCHES

Word search games can be a good method of improving vocabulary in a fun way.

For example, find the following football-related words in the grid below. Words can be written in any direction (forwards, backwards, up, down or diagonally):

CENTRE BACK
COACH
CORNER
CROSSBAR
DEFENDER
FOOTBALL
FORMATION
FORWARD
FOUL
GOALPOST
HANDBALL
HEADER
HOME
KEEPER
LINESMAN
MANAGER
MATCH
MIDFIELDER
NIL
OFFSIDE
PASS
PENALTY
PLAYER
REFEREE
SCORE
SENT OFF
SHOT
SOCCER
STRIKER
SUBSTITUTE
SUPPORTER
TACKLE
TEAM
THROW
YELLOW CARD

R
P
L
A
Y
E
R
O
F
C
A
B
E
R
T
N
E
C
K
E
I
D
E
T
T
I
F
U
T
B
A
L
I
Y
D
C
C
E
N
E
U
M
L
P
O
L
E
E
H
R
R
L
R
R
A
R
E
H
S
E
M
A
T
C
E
O
T
Y
E
O
A
O
B
E
S
P
R
E
G
A
N
A
M
S
A
H
O
N
C
S
E
F
M
E
E
T
O
I
E
E
M
L
T
H
R
O
W
S
R
E
A
T
D
R
A
S
S
A
P
M
A
O
H
O
O
B
T
R
N
E
N
U
L
F
H
D
A
N
C
E
T
M
L
A
N
E
T
N
I
O
P
F
O
E
D
I
K
E
E
P
L
R
E
D
I
S
F
F
O
O
T
B
A
L
L
R
N
O
E
E
C
N
E
M
O
R
S
U
A
E
G
D
E
F
O
K
Y
F
N
E
M
O
W
U
T
L
E
N
R
A
E
E
I
E
T
R
O
F
F
A
L
I
L
R
L
D
N
E
N
R
T
R
L
E
B
E
R
E
T
R
O
P
P
U
S
H
T
A
A
E
E
E
P
D
A
S
E
C
N
I
H
O
L
S
C
H
M
N
N
R
A
M
B
R
S
C
H
O
O
L
L
E
W
A
R
R
E
N
R
U
R
E
C
C
O
S
N
C
U
N
E
W
O
O
P
S
S
O
C
E
R
E
D
L
E
I
F
D
I
M
F
C
E
B

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PRODUCTS

TV Games
If you like word games, watch the programme Countdown on television (on Channel 4 most weekday afternoons)

Board Games
Try playing board games such as these:

 Scrabble Deluxe
Manufacturer: Mattel
Super Boggle
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Tell Me Quiz
Manufacturer: Rocket Toys and Games
Countdown Board Game
Manufacturer: Britannia Games

Puzzle books and magazines
Try buying a puzzle magazine such as The Puzzler or Wordsearch from a newsagent, or subscribe to online puzzles at: http://www.puzzler.co.uk.

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LOGIC
 
A Question of Logic
Some English people can't understand why you find English difficult.
But if you ask them to explain something, they don't know how!
Here are some interesting questions to ask an English person to answer:

- If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from?
- If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes?
- Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?
- Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker? Does he make you broke?
Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called the rush hour?
- If horrific means to make horrible, does terrific mean to make terrible?
- Why is it called a building when it is already built?
- If vegetarians eat vegetables, do humanitarians eat humans?
Why is abbreviation such a long word?


The English Patient
Have you been feeling ill recently? This might be the reason ...

Medical statistics show that:
- The Japanese eat very little fat, and have fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
- But the French eat a lot of fat, and also have fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.

Medical statistics also show that:
- The Japanese drink very little red wine, and have fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
- But the Italians drink large amounts of red wine, and also have fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.

Conclusion:
Eat & drink what you like. It's speaking English that kills you !!!


Fish & chips
The writer George Bernard Shaw asked the following question:
How do you pronounce the word ghoti?
The answer is fish!
To see why, pronounce:
gh as in enough (F)
o is in women (I)
ti as in nation (SH)

This proves how difficult English spelling is. But maybe it could be even worse ...
Just imagine - the favourite English word potato could be spelt gh-ough-bt-eigh-bt-eau:
gh as in hiccough (pronounced like P)
ough as in though (O)
bt as in debt (T)
eigh as in neighbour (A)
bt as in debt (T)
eau as in bureau (O)

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LINKS

Study English: English
Dictionaries: English/Study/Dictionaries

Home page: Home

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