The Secret Life of Two-Letter Words

There are 107 valid two-letter words in the TWL Scrabble dictionary, and they matter far more than their size suggests. Every parallel play on a tight board uses them. Every late-game squeeze relies on them. Not knowing them is the single biggest gap separating casual players from tournament ones.

The obvious ones are words you already use: AM, AN, AT, BE, BY, DO, GO, HE, IN, IS, IT, ME, NO, OF, ON, OR, SO, TO, UP, US, WE. That is 21 right there.

Then come the slightly-odd-but-familiar: AD, AS, AH, AY, ED, EH, EL, EN, ER, ES, EX, FA, HA, HI, HM, HO, LA, LI, LO, MA, MM, MY, NA, NE, NU, OH, OM, OW, OX, OY, PA, PI, RE, SH, SI, TA, TI, UH, UM, UN, UT, WO, YA, YE, YO. The interjections and musical notes are all over.

Then the Scrabble-famous: AA (a type of lava), AB (a stomach muscle), AE (one, Scottish), AG (agriculture), AI (a three-toed sloth), AL (an Asian tree), AR (the letter R), AW (to express mild protest), BA (the eternal soul in Egyptian mythology), BI (bisexual), BO (a pal), DA (dad), DE (of, from), EF (the letter F), EM (printing measure), ES (the letter S), ET (past tense of eat, dialect), FE (a Hebrew letter), GI (a martial arts uniform), JO (a sweetheart), KA (the spiritual self), KI (a vital life force), MI (a musical note), MO (a moment), NAH (nope), NY (... wait, three letters), OD (a hypothetical force), OE (a whirlwind off the Faroe Islands), OI (an interjection), OP (a style of abstract art), OS (a bone), PE (a Hebrew letter), QI (vital life force, accepted in TWL), TE (a musical note), UG (to loathe), XI (a Greek letter), XU (a monetary unit of Vietnam), YA (you), YE (you, archaic), ZA (slang for pizza).

Memorize them. It is the highest-value 15 minutes of study you will ever do.