Lesson 3: The 3-letter words beginning with B

There are 61 permissible 3-letter words beginning with B in SOWPODS, namely:

BAA BAC BAD BAG BAH BAL BAM BAN BAP BAR BAS BAT BAY BED BEE BEG BEL BEN BES BET BEY BEZ BIB BID BIG BIN BIO BIS BIT BIZ BOA BOB BOD BOG BOH BOI BOK BON BOO BOP BOR BOS BOT BOW BOX BOY BRA BRO BRR BRU BUB BUD BUG BUM BUN BUR BUS BUT BUY BYE BYS

However, I am assuming that most native speakers of English are very comfortable with the following words, and will not need to add them to their vocabulary:

BAD BAG BAN BAP BAR BAT BAY BED BEE BEG BET BIB BID BIG BIN BIT BOB BOG BOO BOP BOW BOX BOY BRA BUD BUG BUM BUN BUS BUT BUY BYE

Which reduces the list of words to learn to just 29:

BAA BAC BAH BAL BAM BAS
BEL BEN BES BEY BEZ
BIO BIS BIZ
BOA BOD BOH BOI BOK BON BOR BOS BOT
BRO BRR BRU
BUB BUR
BYS

Ultimately you are just going to have to learn this list.  If we try to introduce too many aide memoires at this stage the 3-letter words are just going to become jumbled.  However, I like to try to remember them in the format above, splitting the list by the second letter.

If you want to use a rather convoluted method of remembering them, then I use the following words/phrases, each of the letters of which can follow the first two letters given below:

BA:  Chalms
BE:  Ellen's YZ (since BEE is acceptable you can use all of these letters)
BI:  Soz
BO:  Dank Shirt (i.e. if you have BO you probably have a dirty shirt)
BR:  Our (imagine saying 'our' in a posh English accent; it sounds like R)

And then just remembering BU goes with B and R, and that BYS is on it's own at the end of the list.

Give it a go yourself.   After 5-6 runs through you should be able to recite all of the unusual 3-letter words beginning with B.  Congratulations!

Before you move onto lesson 4 - the 3-letter words beginning with C - try running through all of the first three lessons to cement them in your memory.

Next:  Lesson 4: The 3-letter words beginning with C