Bananagrams - Tips & Strategies

We have played the real game of Bananagrams just a handful of times and that’s it. Like Scrabble, it’s just not something my family *ahem* wants to play with me.

But we have gotten way more than our money’s worth out of this game using it as follows:

Take a word, spell it, scramble it, give it to someone else at the table. Let them unscramble it.

These tiles are *much* better than Scrabble tiles for this purpose. They are thicker and easier to handle and there are way more of them, so you can normally find what you need. Also this scramble game balances skill very well. I can give my 9 year old “ARLCE,” my 12 year old “OMICTA,” and they can give me whatever they want and everybody’s happy.

I’m sure there are many other word games you can play with these tiles – converting one word to another, one letter at a time comes to mind – but this one is absolutely a family favorite.

One house rule that can make this game a bit more challenging is a variation of the “no two letter words” rule listed below. When bananagramming with an equally matched opponent, I’ll suggest that two letter words can be used during the game, but must not be in a completed puzzle. This can force a player to re-arrange more towards the end of the game.

The first time I played was with a group of 5 seasoned Bananagramers and I hated every second. The games went by so fast and I was left confused and annoyed.

I suggest if you have new players coming to the game to give them a chance to play a couple games by themselves or with one moderator so they can get a feel for the frantic game play without experienced players running over them! My wife and I got our own set so we could learn together and the next time I met up with those friends, it was a much better experience.

This isn’t meant to be facetious…you will play this game better if you read more, because you’ll be exposed to more words, and you’ll recognize words more quickly. I used to not read because I felt I didn’t have the time, and I was ok at this game but I ended up making one syllable words that were 4 or 5 letters long. You can definitely win by doing that, but now that I read more, I have a larger word bank and this game comes more easily to me. Plus, when has reading been a bad thing? It’ll benefit you in other areas of life too! (Wow, I really just sounded like a dad there…)

A rule we sometimes play with, to make getting rid of that last tile a little bit harder, is to not allow two letter words.

This lengthens the game slightly, but provides a new challenge and helps alleviate the insta-win scenario when someone’s last tile of the game is easily played as part of a two letter word. This can give other players a few seconds to catch up.