All Letters Are Not Created Equal
May 22nd, 2010 by Nancy
Yesterday I learned that in the English language, we supposedly use these letters the most, in this order:
often < e t a o i n s r h l d c u m f p g w y b v k x j q z > not often
Well, it makes sense to me that Z is at the end. But I definitely didn’t except N (Whoo! Go, Ns!) to make it in the Top 10.
Well, I spent my Friday night putting together a game based on this fascinating information. What? It’s not fascinating? Well, it is to me. Because I’m a nerd.
Here are the steps — my answers are in green.
- Pick a book title. Charlotte’s Web
- Count the number of letters in the title. Spaces and punctuation don’t count. 13
- Assign each letter points, based on the super-duper-official-patent-pending Nancy’s Arbitrary Game for Letters in Book Titles GameTM Guide:
1 e t a o i 2 n s r h 3 l d c u 4 m f p 5 g w y 6 b v 7 k x 8 j 9 q 10 z - Divide the Total by the Number of Letters: 29/13=2.23
Arbitrary Game Letters in TitleTM Score for Charlotte’s Web : 2.23
Other Scores Calculated
Bridge to Terabithia: ~2.0555…
The Phantom Toolbooth: 2.0
Holes: 1.9
And to save anyone else the trouble, I also calculated The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread and got a measly 2.15… so, longer is not always better!
So far my first title is still winning. Maybe one day an author will title a book with the sole purpose of winning this game… (Authors: Just kidding. Do not do this.) Get out some scratch paper, and see if your favorite book title beats Charlotte’s Web!
— Nancy
Nancy makes games like this all the time, because as she’s mentioned above, she’s a big nerd. With way too much free time.
More about Nancy »