# Scrabble- Why is H worth 4 points? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 25, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002 "2011-03-25T20:23:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/1 "2011-03-25T20:23:43Z")
I was looking at a list of most common used letters in the English language. In order, they are: e t a o i n s r h l d c u m f p g w y b v k x j q z For the most part, the values of the letters in Scrabble reflect this more or less, except for H. Does anyone know why H, which based on usage should clearly be worth 1 point, is valued at 4 points? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/2 "2011-03-25T20:27:29Z")
'ell if I know. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/3 "2011-03-25T20:33:02Z")
WAG but IME the opportunity to use an H in a significant way points-wise is relatively rare. There are just not a whole lot of chances that come up in a typical Scrabble game where open spaces on the board and the letters in your hand match up enough to make a good play. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/4 "2011-03-25T20:41:52Z")
The most common _pair_ of letters in English is TH. I wonder what proportion of H’s absolute frequency is bound up in that combination. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/5 "2011-03-25T20:46:55Z")
I suspect its because very often when H appears its paired with a few specific other letters: CH, GH, SH, PH, TH, WH. If you don’t count these combos, it’s a much rarer letter. And you can only use it in one of these combos if you have one of the matching letters. ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/6 "2011-03-25T20:50:44Z")
Good points, I also just had a thought that the letter frequency list is probably for total frequency, and H is higher on that list due to “The” being one of the most commonly used words. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/7 "2011-03-25T21:10:12Z")
“H” is one of my favorite letters to pull. IIRC, It can form 10 two letters words, more than any other consonant (except for “M”) HA, HE, HI, HO, HM, AH, EH, OH, UH, and SH ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/8 "2011-03-25T21:18:59Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > “H” is one of my favorite letters to pull. IIRC, It can form 10 two letters words, more than any other consonant (except for “M”) > > HA, HE, HI, HO, HM, AH, EH, OH, UH, and SH I’m sure someone can quote the relevant sections from the Official Scrabble Players’ Dictionary, but how in the hell are “hm” and “sh” considered ‘words’? When I learned English, we were told that a ‘word’ included at least one vowel (hence the ‘sometimes y and w’).. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/9 "2011-03-25T21:23:24Z")
Evidently Scrabble [allows](http://www.hasbro.com/scrabble/en_US/search.cfm) many more “words” than I thought. It looks like they would not only accept “hm,” but also adding an M to make “hmm.” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/10 "2011-03-25T21:24:09Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > I’m sure someone can quote the relevant sections from the Official Scrabble Players’ Dictionary, but how in the hell are “hm” and “sh” considered ‘words’? When I learned English, we were told that a ‘word’ included at least one vowel (hence the ‘sometimes y and w’).. That’s not true in other languages, so why does it have to be true in English as long as the word can be pronounced? Scrabble does not allow contractions or one-letter words, so “n” would not be allowed as a word, but is it not a word in “rock ‘n’ roll”? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/11 "2011-03-25T21:26:28Z")
It’s a contraction. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/12 "2011-03-25T21:33:37Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > WAG but IME the opportunity to use an H in a significant way points-wise is relatively rare. There are just not a whole lot of chances that come up in a typical Scrabble game where open spaces on the board and the letters in your hand match up enough to make a good play. But there are so many little words with H. Ha, he, hi, ho, ah, eh, oh, uh. I think of it as an easy way to make some points. Like when you put “H” on the intersection of some blocks and make a couple of little words each way and the H is on a double or triple letters core. Something like v or c, you can’t do that with because there aren’t any two word v or c words. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/13 "2011-03-25T21:38:54Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > That’s not true in other languages, so why does it have to be true in English as long as the word can be pronounced? Scrabble does not allow contractions or one-letter words, so “n” would not be allowed as a word, but is it not a word in “rock ‘n’ roll”? I’ll preface this by saying that I know I’m fighting a losing battle, but I’m too old and stubborn to give up… I don’t see what difference it makes what the rules are in other languages…I understand the rule in English to be “words have vowels”. Now, I may be mistaken there, as I’m certain that Miss Machado was never recognized as an expert in linguistics…but I’m also pretty sure that Scrabble allows a lot of ‘words’ that aren’t really words just to allow people to use up all of their tiles. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/14 "2011-03-25T21:49:14Z")
OK, Smrz is a reasonably common Czech surname – I used to know someone with that name, and in Wikipedia I found [Brian Smrz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Smrz) and [Jakub Smrž](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakub_Smr%C5%BE). [Ng](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ng) is a common Cantonese surname. Does that mean that those surnames, used by English-speaking people, are not “words” in English? ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/15 "2011-03-25T22:25:03Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > It’s a contraction. Is a contraction not a word? ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/16 "2011-03-25T22:36:30Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > Is a contraction not a word? You would need to combine “n” with two apostrophe tiles. Maybe the blanks could serve. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/17 "2011-03-25T22:36:35Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > OK, Smrz is a reasonably common Czech surname – I used to know someone with that name, and in Wikipedia I found [Brian Smrz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Smrz) and [Jakub Smrž](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakub_Smr%C5%BE). [Ng](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ng) is a common Cantonese surname. Does that mean that those surnames, used by English-speaking people, are not “words” in English? Scrabble dodges that question by outlawing proper names. (And contractions, and hyphenated word, btw) ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/18 "2011-03-25T23:23:23Z")
And a good way to dump “R’s” is “BRRR” which is a legal word. Here is a [cheat sheet](http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adam.bozon/scrabblelists.htm#consonants) for legal ‘odd’ words. I got to know the vowel dump words very well. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/19 "2011-03-26T03:54:47Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t see what difference it makes what the rules are in other languages…I understand the rule in English to be “words have vowels”. Now, I may be mistaken there, as I’m certain that Miss Machado was never recognized as an expert in linguistics…but I’m also pretty sure that Scrabble allows a lot of ‘words’ that aren’t really words just to allow people to use up all of their tiles. All words, in all languages, need vowels. It’s just that the list of vowels is a lot longer than most people recognize. The vowel in “hm” is “m”, and the vowel in “sh” is “sh”. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002/20 "2011-03-27T02:42:53Z")
Not that there is a lot opportunities to play it, but “**[ZZZ](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123731266862258869.html?mod=yhoofront)**” has been recently been added to official scrabble dictionary. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-why-is-h-worth-4-points/576002.md?page=2)