Talk:List of two-letter English words

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Contents

[edit] Miscellanea

(This was originally random text above the table of contents, so I've added the heading "miscellanea" for it to be a section)JianLi 22:45, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Can someone add a definition of the source of the word list please. It states they are ok for Scrabble - is this USA scrabble, UK scrabble, ...? Is this from Chambers Dictionary or ...? -- SGBailey 11:07 Dec 11, 2002 (UTC)

Indeed. I don't know what the source is but it doesn't include some scrabble words e.g. mm (OSPD) and qi (OSW). Mintguy 11:15 Dec 11, 2002 (UTC)

The source was short words.... (anon)

Does this article really need to be here? Wikipedia is not a dictionary. -- Zoe

I like it. It is a useful source of information (mainly I admit for scrabble players or for crossword solvers). If you object to the definitions could we keep the list? (I've had a very similar list on a 3" by 5" filecard for the last 30 years - an very useful it has been too! SGBailey 22:49 Dec 11, 2002 (UTC)
It think it does. In the same way that the page on the Longest word in the English language should be here. But I think some effort should be put into usage of these words. Which are in common usage, and which are probably only used in scrabble etc.. Mintguy
I think it should stay. If you wanted to get a list of all two letter words from a dictionary, it would either be in an encyclopaedia-like appendix, or you would have to look through each page and note them down. -- taras
This is a natural candidate for promotion to the putative Wikipedia companion Wiktionary currently under discussion on meta. Until we get it up and running, I can't see it doing any real harm here and will serve as a potentially useful catalyst in the process of getting Wiktionary to become a reality. user:sjc
I think it should stay. And I like having the definitions. This is the sort of interesting (to some) view of things, that isn't likely to be in a dictionary. There are worse things than having Wikipedia be useful to people who do crossword or scrabble (though, I do neither). It is also useful in anagrams. -- Jeff

Is "yo" a valid two-letter word? It is often said as a greeting or as a yes / no reply to a question by "a cool dude". SGBailey

Presumably, if "ho" (prostitute) and "sh" (questionable!) count... taras

Would that be in the context of when one is 'hangin' with one's 'homies' by any chance, old boy? quercus robur

If only I was aware of the correct etiquette for busting a cap in yo ass, G :) --taras (incidentally, doesn't "G" then count as a One-letter English word?
Having seen four-letter word - should I have put this at two-letter word? -Martin
That looks like a better title to me. --mav
If we remove the word "English", we'd have to include two-letter words in other languages too, which would make the article rather unwieldy! This may be the English-language Wikipedia, but it includes information about other languages. Besides, this article isn't analogous with the "Four-letter word" one, because that is not a collection of all words with four letters, but rather an article about only those four-letter words which are "scorned in polite society but redolent of earthy Anglo-Saxon pungency". (What a lovely turn of phrase!) -- Oliver PEREIRA 14:54 Dec 12, 2002 (UTC)
It isn't the analogy with four-letter words, it is the usual rule in English that multiple-word modifiers (like "multiple-word") are hyphenated. Ortolan88
I was addressing the proposed removal of the word "English", not the hyphenation. -- Oliver P. 15:26 Feb 28, 2003 (UTC)

Is "ph" really a word? If so, how is it pronounced? "F"? If it's just "pee aitch", then it's just a two-letter abbreviation like any other, isn't it? -- Oliver P. 15:26 Feb 28, 2003 (UTC)

ph is an acceptable Scrabble word in OSW and therefore Chambers dictionary as pee-aitch.
"ph" is incorrect. The correct form is "pH". It stands for something like "partial pressure of hydrogen", and the symbol for hydrogen is H, not h.

--jaknouse

"pH" is a valid Scrabble word because it is does not violate any of the rules that prevent a word from being valid. It is listed (in Chambers Dictionary, at least) as a noun and does not begin with a capital letter. It is therefore not considered to be an abbreviation, nor a symbol (symbols, such as kg, are not allowed under the most recent version of the rules) nor a proper noun. It's a word that has been allowed in because of the way it appears in the dictionary. Because it is a noun, its plural pHs is also valid.

I think we need some sort of clarity regards the Scrabble list. Some OSW words aren't on the Scrabble list here and some of the words aren't OSW words - maybe it's an American / British difference thing, and I don't want to go changing it all if that's the case.

Also, is TV really allowed? I mean, Chambers calls it an abbreviation.

Also also, does anyone with a better grasp of the rules than I know how things like "bs" stand? I presume that's the plural of the letter "b". -Nommo

One approach would be to put, next to each of the mini-definitions, "[OSW]" if it's an OSW word, "[abbr.]]]" if it's an abbreviation, and so forth. Or make some kind of table. Martin
Ok -- Re Scrabble
==OSPD/OWL/TWL98== (US dictionaries all the same for 2 letter words).
AA AB AD AE AG AH AI AL AM AN AR AS AT AW AX AY 
BA BE BI BO BY  
DE DO ED 
EF EH EL EM EN ER ES ET EX 
FA  
GO 
HA HE HI HM HO 
ID IF IN IS IT  
JO  
KA 
LA LI LO  
MA ME MI MM MO MU MY 
NA NE NO NU 
OD OE OF OH OM ON OP OR OS OW OX OY  
PA PE PI 
RE 
SH SI SO  
TA TI TO 
UH UM UN UP US UT 
WE WO 
XI XU  
YA YE YO

==OSW, from Chambers, UK/Austrlia etc..==
AA AD AE AH AI AM AN AR AS AT AW AX AY  
BA BE BI BO BY 
CH 
DA DI DO  
EA EE EF EH EL EM EN ER ES EX  
FA FY 
GI GO GU 
HA HE HI HO  
ID IF IN IO IS IT 
JO  
KA KO KY  
LA LI LO  
MA ME MI MO MU MY 
NA NE NO NU NY 
OB OD OE OF OH OI OM ON OO OR OS OU OW OX OY 
PA PH PI PO 
QI 
RE 
SH SI SO ST  
TA TE TI TO  
UG UM UN UP UR US UT 
WE WO 
XI XU  
YE YO YU  
ZO 

==SOWPODS/OSWI is a combination of BOTH used for International competition==
AA AB AD AE AG AH AI AL AM AN AR AS AT AW AX AY  
BA BE BI BO BY 
CH 
DA DE DI DO  
EA ED EE EF EH EL EM EN ER ES ET EX  
FA FY 
GI GO GU 
HA HE HI HM HO  
ID IF IN IO IS IT 
JO  
KA KO KY  
LA LI LO  
MA ME MI MM MO MU MY 
NA NE NO NU NY 
OB OD OE OF OH OI OM ON OO OP OR OS OU OW OX OY 
PA PE PH PI PO 
QI 
RE 
SH SI SO ST  
TA TE TI TO  
UG UH UM UN UP UR US UT 
WE WO 
XI XU  
YA YE YO YU  
ZO
Mintguy 21:30 11 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Does anyone know which version of the OPSD has been used for the article? If so, please mark it as such. Last I heard they were up to version 3. Nanobug 02:34, 6 Sep 2003 (UTC)

It doesn't matter which version it was because the two letter words haven;t changed. Mintguy 06:36, 6 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Chambers Official Scrabble Words (4th edition) does not include AB in its two-letter word list, but AB appears on the OSW list in the article. Can anyone confirm which version is correct? Jamie Fox 22:27, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Nobody seems to have objected, so I've now fixed it. Jamie Fox 17:17, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How are these lists decided?

I came to this article looking to find out what governing body determines what words are approved, and what the process is for approval. If anyone knows this, could they add it to the article? (I'm wondering if and when "ap" will find its way onto the list.) -- Samuel Wantman 05:57, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] 'e'e

Does 'e'e count as only two letters? I'm not very knowledgable about Hawaiian, but doesn't the apostrophe represent a glottal stop, making it another letter and therefore a four letter word?

[edit] Error in the chart

In the OSPD4 chart, there is no row for Q, though the text above it says that QI was added to OSPD4.

[edit] removing empty columns from ospd section

i think it's actually worth having the empty columns there (empty rows too, for that matter) in order to show coveniently what combinations are NOT possible. i would vote for putting them back in.tej 18:55, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

I took them out, because I noticed that they were the only two rows/columns which were blank... but putting them all back in does make sense. --kris 19:01, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Even more two-letter words

Pears Advanced Word-Puzzlers' Dictionary gives a more comprehensive list of two-letter words than both OSW and OSPD. It includes a section of word-gaming tips that tells you about the two-letter words by grouping them into three categories: consonant followed by vowel or Y; beginning with a vowel; two consonants. The majority of two-letter combinations of the first two categories are words, and it lists those that aren't, before giving the two-consonant words that do exist. While I don't have the book to hand at the moment, IIRC it tots up 229 valid two-letter words. Strangely, one thing there is contradictory to the information here: it explicitly states that "ch" is not and has never been a real word, and is therefore invalid for play. -- Smjg 12:10, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ad

I suggest that "ad" is a valid word, having graduated from recognition as a mere abbreviation for advertisement. BD2412 T 17:18, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Scrabble

I've made a few adjustments to the OSPD chart...

  • added two column and row headings so that all four sides have them
  • put in the empty rows and columns

I am also trying to get the filled cells to stand out from the blank cells by making them different colors (perhaps making the blank cells red, and the filled cells green). However, I have a rudimentary knowledge of wikicode, and I cannot find a method to do this that is not tedious. In fact, the very idea of making this chart in wikicode is tedious, as its dimensions are 28X28, or 892. Is there any one who can

  • make the filled cells a different color so as to stand out?
  • convert the other lists (4.2, 4.3) to the same chart format
  • find a simpler way to do all of this, maybe without wikicode?

Thanks, JianLi 22:50, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Ok, with minimal effort involved because I am lazy, I've done some adjustments:
  • Filled cells are now yellow, due to style="background-color:#ffffee" in each row header, and because I added empty-cells:hide; and background-color:white to the table's overall style. You can adjust these two colors as needed.
  • Collapsed borders. With empty-cells:hide; there are no borders on empty cells (in mozilla at least) unless you use border-collapse:collapse; too. You can remove it to see what the table looks like without borders on empty cells (preview button is your friend!).
One thought: wikicode takes up a lot of vertical space, but makes it easier to edit for most wiki users. It could be condensed with html, but would be messy to edit later. If you want the html version, view the page source ^_^. --Splarka (rant) 07:18, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
Very nice, thanks! JianLi 18:33, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../l/i/s/Talk%7EList_of_two-letter_English_words_326c.html"