Playing simple but addictive game Wordle is all about strategy, language experts advise.
You only get six tries to guess a word in Wordle, and many would appreciate some extra help.
If you're not in the know, Wordle is a free online puzzle that's set the internet and social media abuzz since being released in October 2021.
Millions play the game every day and Wordle's owner recently sold the game to the New York Times in a sum cryptically described as 'in the low seven figures'.
Busuu, a language learning app, has offered some tips on how to improve your scores and the strongest words to beat, The Express reports.
The brainteaser involves getting six tries to work out a five-letter word and players can only play once a day.
Here's how to sharpen your guesses on Wordle.
Expert help on playing Wordle
If you want to beat your friends and improve your scores, look no further than these tips from language experts at Busuu.
Busuu’s expert linguists have analysed the best words to beat Wordle in as few attempts as possible.
The experts highlighted the most common consonants in English are T, N, S, R, H, L, D and C, while E is the most common of the vowels.
So, for the strongest starting words you'll want a vowel-heavy word containing a few common consonants.
Starting with a word like IRATE, RETIA, CRIES or TRIED is likely to reveal at least one correct letter.
After establishing the vowels, you can move onto words containing more of those common consonants such as STAND, SHIRT or HANDS.
You should also bear in mind that in the English language, many words begin with RE, CO and IN.
How does Wordle work?
Wordle is a daily online brainteaser where players have to work out a five-letter word in up to six guesses.
When you guess a word, correct letters turn green, whereas letters in the wrong place turn yellow, and letters not appearing in the word turn grey.
Players can only play once a day, so while the game may feel addictive, you can’t lose hours to the puzzle.
The most popular element of Wordle is the way the game allows you to share your score on social media, using coloured emojis to represent how many guesses it took you.
Because everyone is guessing the same word each day, it can get competitive as people attempt to crack the puzzle in fewer goes than their friends.
