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Constructing => General Discussion => Topic started by: margoc19 on September 11, 2019, 08:54:47 AM
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Is there a limit to how many three letter words can be in a 15x15 grid?
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Simon & Schuster has a hard and fast rule - no more than 12. For othrers, the fewer the better, and you'll probably get some pushback it if you go over 20.
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I was wondering this myself recently, and did a quick survey of the last few NYT puzzles. The September 4 puzzle, a Wednesday, has a whopping 28 3-letter words in it. That week's Monday puzzle has 21, and the Tuesday has 24. The Thursday and Friday both have 11, and Saturday has 17.
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That puzzle with 28 3's got dinged by the reviewer for that, but it was an oh-so-cute novelty theme, and obviously the fill didn't much matter. When you look at that puzzle, you find ONO, OTT, RTE, CEO, ALT, EEL, ADA, MTA, ORK - pretty crappy fill IMO. So if you come up with a theme that's as clever as that, no one's going to worry about how many three letter words you have (or in this case what they are).
Sometimes the theme forces a high 3-letter word count, and that's often forgiven. But I think the point is, you should design your grid to minimize the number of 3-letter words given the theme set you're working with.
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Very helpful, thanks everyone!
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RE: a limited number of non-words/names (abbreviations, acronyms etc.) and a limited number of three-letter words in a puzzle.
Given that a limited number is best, is it feasible to submit a puzzle, for example, with 10% non-words/names (about 7 in a 15 x 15) and also have 20 three letter words?
Or should the combined number of non-words (7) and three-letter words not exceed 20?
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The two things (non-words and 3-letter entries) are separate issues.
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Sometimes using a lot of three-letter words is something that cannot be helped. I mean, the software I use does not have the ability to count three-letter words, unless I overlooked something.
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Darla - just curious about what software you're using. Crossword Compiler shows the word count using FILE/STATISTICS/WORDS. It's a pretty standard thing to be able to know, so I should think other software has a similar feature.
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Forgot to mention, Darla is not my real first name. I use Darla in my username, but I am actually Jonathan. Sorry for causing any confusion.
As for software, I use CrossFire. I created another thread earlier today asking about publications that use CrossFire. I know it has the ability to count the number of words and number of black squares in the grid. I am thinking there is a feature that counts the number of words based on letter count - but I will have to check it out.
I really would love to submit puzzles to the LA Times, but they do not accept CrossFire-created puzzles. I did learn, however, they use Across Lite, which is a free software. But then again, it's possible that if you submit crosswords using a free software, you may not get paid for your work. If you get paid for your work, you should use a software you paid money for - at least, that's what my logic thinks.
That said, I am going to consider purchasing the professional version of Crossword Compiler someday.
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CrossFire shows the number of N letter words on the Summary tab, in the "word counts" section.
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Is there any great techniques have arrived to quick learn
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fhadpe (above) seems to indicate that the 10% of non-words includes names. Is that true? i.e., Are all proper names included in the non-word count?
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No. Names are not non-words, unless they're abbreviated or initials (Thos. RLS)
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The original question was how many 3-letter words can be in a 15x15. The next question:
How many 3-letter words can be in a 21x21 ? I've started counting and the number can be pretty high, from what I've seen.
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Simon & Schuster sets the limit at 24 3 letter words in a 21x grid - the only one that I'm aware of that has a stated limit. My recently published 21x puzzles have the following 3-letter word counts: 22, 14, 8, 20, 30.
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Thanx Mark. I was sweating it there for awhile!
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Nice information!! Thanks