How to play Hangman: which letters to guess first

Hangman isn’t just luck. Guessing letters in the right order and reading the shape of a word can rescue almost any game.

The rules

A word is hidden as a row of blanks. Guess one letter at a time. If it’s in the word, it appears in every place it occurs. If not, another part is added to the drawing. You can make six wrong guesses; on the seventh, the game is lost.

Start with the vowels

E is the most common letter in English, followed by A, O and I. Almost every word has at least one vowel, so a vowel is usually a safe first guess.

Then common consonants

After a vowel or two, try T, N, S, R and L. Between them, they appear in a huge share of words.

Use the clue

In Solo, the theme narrows things a lot. A seven-letter word in Animals starting with K is a short list. Think of words in the theme that match the length and the letters you have.

Read the shape

Once a few letters are showing, look for familiar patterns: -ING, -ER, -ED, -LE, -TION at the end, or TH, SH, CH and ST together. A blank after a Q is almost always U.

Playing with a friend

When it’s your turn to choose, pick a word with unusual letters, like JAZZ or RHYTHM, rather than a long word. Long words have more blanks, but more blanks means more letters to hit.