== How many more words are there, and what would I need to learn? ==
Technically, of course, you need to learn almost nothing, because there are just 52 2-words of 8 letter words letters or fewer in NWL that are not in CSW, and almost all of those are obscure. In practice, of course, and there are some useful basic words to start none withfewer than 4 letters.
In practice, there are some useful basic words to start with. Because CSW contains essentially all the NWL words, you can continue to play the same game, and anything that was good in NWL remains good. Because the fundamentals of the game have not changed, the kinds of words that are the most useful to study in NWL are also the best to study in CSW. Thus the player who has studied the 2s, 3s, JQXZ words, some 4s, high probability bingos, etc., can continue to use the same methods for CSW.
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However, it is likely that you did not start out playing TWL with the intention of learning all 188,738 words. Likewise, you can play a good CSW game without needing more than a small fraction of the extra 30,900 2–8s. In fact, you can play a decent game with just the 2s and 3s. The main thing to keep in mind is that essentially every word you know from TWL is still valid. So, as we have already seen that three quarters of the words are TWL, you are already three quarters of the way there. And in many cases, even more than this, because there will be a choice of moves, many of which will be TWL.
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So, what should you actually study? In the following, we present various useful lists and suggestions. In some cases we have presented just the most useful words, but you can see the full list by following the link in the headingCollins Cheat Sheet section below.
== Two-letter words ==
As in TWLNWL, by far the most useful words are the 2s. There are 20 more of these in CSW:
1-10: CH DI EA EE FY GU IO JA KO KY 11-20: NY OB OO OU ST UG UR YU ZE ZO
<br>While 20 is not a large number, you probably will not remember them all straightaway . (your Your author has played in the World Championships, and did not remember the 2s in one sitting.). They will become a natural part of the game over time.
== [[Three-letter words]] ==
Following the 2s, there are 267 3s. The most useful 3s are:
1-10: QIN EXO IDE OYE JAI ZEA ITA ENE ITA AIA IWI AYU 11-20: AYU JOR URE WEX URE WOX WOF DZO ZEL ZEX AUA NYE AME AUA ZOL 21-30: DZO VAX AME GIO WAI TEX ONY OBO NEF NOX FAW WAI ZOL YEX FAA ...
<br>Obviously, like in TWLNWL, you do not need to know 100% of the 3s before continuing. While words such as ZIZ may come in handy some day, it is likely that various 4s and bingos will come up first.
The next most useful words are the same as in TWLNWL: short words with many vowels, high-scorers with J, Q, X and Z, some of the most useful 4s and 5s (words which are likely to be much better than other moves if you have those tiles, such as VIFDA), high probability bingos, dump-words such as 4s with 2 Is, and words with Q but no Unot the Qu combination.
== [[Vowel dumps]] ==
5s: AIDOI AINEE AULOI BOOAI OUIJA ZOAEA ZOOEA
6s: EUOUAE ZOAEAE ZOOEAE
7s: ETAERIO EATERIE AERADIO AIERIES OLEARIA EUGARIE DOULEIA EUOUAES DIANOIA MOINEAU DIANOIA AURELIA ... 8s: ETAERIOS ERIONITE AEROTONE AEGIRINE DOUANIER NOTITIAE DOUANIER INAURATE AURELIAN AEGIRITE INAURATE ETOURDIE OLEARIAS ...
== [[Short JQXZ words]] ==
J: JA
JAI JOR JOL JAP JIZ ...
JOBE BENJ JUVE JEDI JAGA JUVE ...
OUIJA JEWIE JIAOS JEUNE JOBED ...
Q: QIN
QINS WAQF FIQH QUOP QUEP ...
TALAQ QORMA QUOIF QUOAD QUOIF QUAIR ... X: EXO WEX WOX TEX NOX ZEX VAX ... WEXE GREX FAIX DIXI SAXE LANX ...
VITEX VIBEX XOANA JAXIE WEXED ...
Z: ZE ZO
ZEA ZEL ZEX DZO ZOL ZEX ZEA BEZ ...
LAZO TREZ ZITE ZOOT ZATI ...
ZOAEA ZOOEA AVIZE ZANTE AVIZE EZINE ...
== [[High-probability bingos]] ==
7s: NOTAIRE OTARINE ETAERIO ALERION OARIEST OTARIES ROASTIE ORIGANE ENTRAIL RESIANT ...
8s: TAILERON ANOESTRI ARSONITE NOTAIRES ROSINATE ETAERIOS DONARIES DOUANIER ALERIONS SOTERIAL INORNATE ...
== I and U dumps ==
I: IWI
DIVI DIXI FIFI FINI HIOI ISIT MIHI PIPI SIMI SIRI WILI
U: UMU UTU
HUHU KUKU KUTU KUZU PUKU PULU RURU SUSU UMUS UTUS WUDU ZULU
== Q-not-followed-by-U words ==
FIQH -s QALAMDAN -s QWERTIES TALAQ -s GUQIN -s QASIDA -s TALAQ TSADDIQ -s INQILAB -s QAWWAL -s TSADDIQ -s MUQADDAM -s QAWWALI -s TSADDIQIM QABALISM MUQADDAM -s QIN -s TZADDIQ -s QABALIST QABALISM -s QINGHAOSU -s TZADDIQIM QABALISTIC QABALIST -s QINTARKA WAQF -s QAIMAQAM -s QABALISTIC QORMA -s YAQONA -s QAIMAQAM -s QWERTIES
== Going Further ==
The basics above are easily enough for a good CSW game. But you may decide that you wish to go further.
A significant downside to going further is that it can be difficult to keep the two lexica separate. Although remembering which of the words you now know are “new” is not too bad (think back to the last dictionary update, if you have been playing that long) is not too bad, remembering a word and remembering which lexicon it is in are not the same thing, especially over a period of time. Those The CSW words may come back to haunt you in a NWL game a few months down the line!
But nevertheless, some people have high ratings at both NWL and CSW, and one can get to quite a high standard quite quickly.
== Collins Cheat Sheet ==
We have incorporated the above into a [[Media:Collins_cheat_sheet_part_1.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet]] for CSW15, that is designed to be used as a reference by new-to, or occasional players ofCSW who started off using NWL [1], CSWin settings that allow it. It resembles the original [http://www.cross-tables.com/cs Cheat Sheet] by Mike Baron, and the NSA’s “Important Words to Raise Your Score” sheet that was given to new members, except that it concentrates on CSW words.
There is also a [[Media:Collins_cheat_sheet_part_2.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet Part 2]], which contains a useful array of the hooks to CSW 2s, and the full set of CSW 4s.
[1] In fact, the sheet can also be used by native CSW players who wish to play NWL to know which words are *not* allowed, although it is not complete in this sense.
== More Resources ==