<p>In most languages, all the inflected forms are allowed.</p>
<p>However, the Swedish Scrabble Federation's rules <a href="http://scrabbleforbundet.se/regler/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">state</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Endast fetstilta ord i SAOL är tillåtna. Reglerna som följer med
spelet säger att endast grundformer är tillåtna.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>&quot;Only the bold words in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista are allowed. The rules that are supplied with the game say that only base forms are allowed.&quot;</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-16T10:09:37.350Z
2024-04-16T10:09:37.350Z
rjpond
<p>In English, words are pretty much independent dictionary units, though we do have &quot;socks&quot; alongside &quot;sock&quot;, &quot;agglomerator&quot; alongside &quot;agglomerate&quot;, and the like, but other languages have more flexibility in word variants.</p>
<p>In German, &quot;little&quot; can be kleiner, kleine, kleines, kleinen, kleinem; and &quot;learn&quot; can have <a href="https://conjugator.reverso.net/conjugation-german-verb-treffen.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">40 forms</a>.</p>
<p>In Turkish,  evlerimden is made out of the parts <a href="https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/9377/">ev-ler-im-den</a>  and means &quot;from my houses.&quot;</p>
<p>In Yupik, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polysynthetic_language" rel="nofollow noreferrer">tuntussuqatarniksaitengqiggtuq</a> means &quot;He had not yet said again that he was going to hunt reindeer.&quot;</p>
<p>(Of course, not all these necessarily have an official set of Scrabble rules, but they illustrate the variety that is possible.)</p>
<p>I ask because I want to play Scrabble in various languages like Hebrew or Yiddish where there are no official rules yet.</p>
<p>If you're familiar with non-English Scrabble: Are all possible forms of a word allowed in various language? Only a base form?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-08T16:55:41.843Z
I'm French and yes, the French official scrabble dictionary contains all forms of all words. This makes some letters extremely valuable, for instance most words take an "s" in plural, so letter "s" can easily be added anywhere on the board.
Stef
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-08T16:57:24.467Z
The hard thing you'll have to do if you want to create a scrabble set in a new language is to determine the number of copies and value of each letter tile.
Stef
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-08T16:58:57.357Z
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrabble_letter_distributions#Hebrew for instance
Stef
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-08T17:23:36.330Z
Yes, all forms of a word are allowed, as long as they are "real" and not slang (but much slang becomes real after enough time & usage.)  That is fundamental to Scrabble. Hebrew has a far more interesting problem: vowels. Because vowels are not separate letters, a lot of words are much shorter than in other languages. Which could have significant effects on the number of Bingos and on game play in general.
manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-08T18:19:15.210Z
Thank you @manassehkatz-moving-2-codidact. So in German, Turkish, and Yupik, in principle, all the above-mentioned would be allowed?
Joshua Fox
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-08T18:20:31.060Z
Yes. No reason not to allow the words.
manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-08T18:21:47.780Z
@Stef -- Official Hebrew Scrabble has been sold for decades. So we have points and frequencies, which presumably are reasonable. But the rules in the box say nothing about conjugations, and attached prefixes  and suffixes (in Hebrew, some prepositions are attached so that the equivalent of "in water" for example, would  be "inwater", while "and your dog" would be "anddogyour". So I a trying to figure whether to allow those, and I guess the answer is yes.
Joshua Fox
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-08T22:19:58.557Z
This supports that approach https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/25243
Joshua Fox
<scrabble>
Does Scrabble alllow inflection and agglutination in various languages?
Joshua Fox
# Does Scrabble alllow inflection and agglutination in various languages?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-08-08)

In English, words are pretty much independent dictionary units, though we do have "socks" alongside "sock", "agglomerator" alongside "agglomerate", and the like, but other languages have more flexibility in word variants.

In German, "little" can be kleiner, kleine, kleines, kleinen, kleinem; and "learn" can have [40 forms](https://conjugator.reverso.net/conjugation-german-verb-treffen.html).

In Turkish, evlerimden is made out of the parts [ev-ler-im-den](https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/9377/) and means "from my houses."

In Yupik, [tuntussuqatarniksaitengqiggtuq](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polysynthetic_language) means "He had not yet said again that he was going to hunt reindeer."

(Of course, not all these necessarily have an official set of Scrabble rules, but they illustrate the variety that is possible.)

I ask because I want to play Scrabble in various languages like Hebrew or Yiddish where there are no official rules yet.

If you're familiar with non-English Scrabble: Are all possible forms of a word allowed in various language? Only a base form?

**Tags:** scrabble

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I'm French and yes, the French official scrabble dictionary contains all forms of all words. This makes some letters extremely valuable, for instance most words take an "s" in plural, so letter "s" can easily be added anywhere on the board.  
> **username_1**: The hard thing you'll have to do if you want to create a scrabble set in a new language is to determine the number of copies and value of each letter tile.  
> **username_1**: See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrabble_letter_distributions#Hebrew for instance  
> **username_2**: Yes, all forms of a word are allowed, as long as they are "real" and not slang (but much slang becomes real after enough time & usage.)  That is fundamental to Scrabble. Hebrew has a far more interesting problem: vowels. Because vowels are not separate letters, a lot of words are much shorter than in other languages. Which could have significant effects on the number of Bingos and on game play in general.  
> **username_0**: Thank you @manassehkatz-moving-2-codidact. So in German, Turkish, and Yupik, in principle, all the above-mentioned would be allowed?  
> **username_2**: Yes. No reason not to allow the words.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 -- Official Hebrew Scrabble has been sold for decades. So we have points and frequencies, which presumably are reasonable. But the rules in the box say nothing about conjugations, and attached prefixes  and suffixes (in Hebrew, some prepositions are attached so that the equivalent of "in water" for example, would  be "inwater", while "and your dog" would be "anddogyour". So I a trying to figure whether to allow those, and I guess the answer is yes.  
> **username_0**: This supports that approach https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/25243  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2024-04-16. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

In most languages, all the inflected forms are allowed.

However, the Swedish Scrabble Federation's rules [state](http://scrabbleforbundet.se/regler/):

> Endast fetstilta ord i SAOL är tillåtna. Reglerna som följer med
> spelet säger att endast grundformer är tillåtna.

"Only the bold words in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista are allowed. The rules that are supplied with the game say that only base forms are allowed."


---

