Scrabble Letter Distributions - German

German

German-language editions of Scrabble contain 102 letter tiles, in the following distribution:

• 2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points)
• 1 point: E ×15, N ×9, S ×7, I ×6, R ×6, T ×6, U ×6, A ×5, D ×4
• 2 points: H ×4, G ×3, L ×3, O ×3
• 3 points: M ×4, B ×2, W ×1, Z ×1
• 4 points: C ×2, F ×2, K ×2, P ×1
• 6 points: Ä ×1, J ×1, Ü ×1, V ×1
• 8 points: Ö ×1, X ×1
• 10 points: Q ×1, Y ×1

Note that the letter ß (Eszett) is not used. This is due to the fact that it does not exist as a capital letter in German. While a majuscule ß (see Capital ß) has been established in the context of computing (Unicode), ß is replaced by SS when capitalizing, according to German orthography (e. g. Straße (street): STRASSE). However, the umlauts Ä, Ö and Ü must not be replaced by AE, OE or UE when playing (as would usually be done in German crosswords where ß is also replaced by SS). Other diacritics which may occur in some foreign words are ignored (é = E, œ = OE etc.)

Before 1989–1990, German sets had 119 tiles. Players had eight tiles at a time on their racks, as opposed to the standard seven today. The old letter distribution was:

• 2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points)
• 1 point: E ×16, N ×10, I ×9, S ×8, R ×7, A ×6, U ×6, D ×6
• 2 points: H ×5, T ×5, C ×4, L ×4, O ×4, G ×3, W ×2
• 3 points: M ×4, F ×3, B ×2, Z ×2, K ×2
• 4 points: P ×1, V ×1
• 5 points: Ü ×1
• 6 points: Ä ×1, J ×1
• 8 points: Ö ×1, X ×1
• 10 points: Q ×1, Y ×1