First Word Strategy · Tips

Three marks of a good first word

• Both syllables have a final consonant: then all six cells are scored and one row tests six letters. A word without finals uses only four cells and gives you a third less information.
• No repeated letters: the same consonant as both an initial and a final effectively wastes a cell. Fill all six cells with different letters.
• Simple vowels: compound vowels such as ㅘ or ㅢ are scored as one letter, so a grey result says nothing about their parts. Use simple vowels like ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅗ, ㅜ or ㅣ in the first row's medial cells.
• Pick a partner word: write down the six letters your opener tests, and choose a second word using only consonants and vowels the opener lacks. With a fixed pair you can fill the first two rows every day without thinking and save your effort for row three onwards.

Keep the second row separate from the first

If the first row gives you one or two blue or orange cells and you go straight for the answer, you lose the chance to test the remaining letters. If the first row is mostly grey, fill the second row with letters that do not overlap the first at all. Two rows test twelve different letters, which covers most of the consonants and vowels common in Korean words.

If, on the other hand, the first row shows a blue medial cell, fix that vowel in the same place on the second row and change only the initials and finals. A syllable with a known vowel has far fewer possibilities, so from then on it pays to test consonants broadly.

Once two rows are filled, glance over the keyboard. The consonant keys with no colour yet are your remaining candidates. The third row keeps confirmed blue letters in place, moves orange letters to new positions and mixes in the most common of the remaining consonants. From this point on, a single row both gathers information and goes for the answer.

Reading an orange final cell

Orange in a final cell means the consonant is somewhere in the answer, but not in that final position. The first place to look is the initial of the other syllable. For example, if the ㄴ you put as the first syllable's final is orange, try words whose second syllable starts with ㄴ (such as -나 or -니).

Orange in an initial cell is more open: the consonant may be the other syllable's initial or a final in either syllable. Putting that consonant in a final position on the next row separates the cases in one go.

Questions about first words

Can I use the same first word every day?

Yes. A fixed opener repeats familiar colour patterns, and within a few weeks you can choose your next move from the first row alone. Just know which common letters your opener leaves out, so you can cover them on the second row.

Should I aim for the answer with my first word?

With 171 possible answers, the chance of hitting it on the first row is low. Use the first row to gather information rather than to win, and start aiming for the answer from the third row; that tends to lower your average number of tries.

What colours appear if I use the same letter twice in one row?

Scoring first marks letters in the right position blue, then goes through the remaining letters from the first cell onwards and gives orange only as many times as that letter is still left in the answer. So if you put ㅇ as both an initial and a final and one is orange while the other is grey, the answer contains exactly one ㅇ. In 61 of the 171 possible answers the same letter appears twice or more, so later on keep in mind that a letter that has already lit up may be used again.

What counting the 171 possible answers shows

Counting the current 171 possible answers position by position gives you hard numbers for choosing a first word. The most common initials are ㄱ (61 times) and ㅇ (56), followed by ㅅ (39), ㅈ (32) and ㅂ (31). ㄴ is common as a final but appears as an initial only 17 times. Among vowels ㅏ dominates with 83, then ㅜ (56), ㅣ (48) and ㅗ (36); among finals ㅇ (42), ㄴ (29), ㄹ (28) and ㄱ (24) make up most of the total.

Remember too that finals are rarer than you might think. Of the 342 syllables in the possible answers, 186 (about 54%) have no final, and only 42 answers have a final in both syllables. That is why final cells so often come back grey. If you used that consonant only once in the row, though, a grey final only means it is nowhere in the answer — not that the syllable has no final.