Lesson 4: The 3-letter words beginning with C

Let's now turn our attention to the C's.  It's a shorter list than the B's, with only 49 members, but there are probably fewer that you instinctively know:

CAA CAB CAD CAG CAM CAN CAP CAR CAT CAW CAY CAZ CEE CEL CEP CHA CHE CHI CID CIG CIS CIT CLY COB COD COG COL CON COO COP COR COS COT COW COX COY COZ CRU CRY CUB CUD CUE CUM CUP CUR CUT CUZ CWM

I think you can safely play some of these without worry as they are such well-known words, namely:

CAB CAN CAP CAR CAT COB COD COG COP COT COW COX CRY CUB CUE CUP CUT

That leaves 32 less common words to learn.  Since C only forms one 2-letter word, CH, it is unlikely that you'll play many of these as hooks - but they are very useful for getting pesky C's off your rack through links.  If nothing else, make sure to know the CH words really well.

CAA CAD CAG CAM CAW CAY CAZ

CEE CEL CEP 

CHA CHE CHI 

CID CIG CIS CIT 

CLY 

COL COO COR COS COT COY COZ 

CRU 

CUD CUM CUR CUZ 

CWM

Some of these just need remembering, particularly the ones without a vowel as the middle letter, but CLY, CRU and CWM all have unique middle letters which makes it easier, and CH takes the first three vowels - CHA, CHE and CHI, so that's easy too.

A handy tip for remembering the C words with a vowel as the middle letter is that there are no mis-matching pairs of vowels (such as COU, or CAE) but CAA, CEE and COO are all accepted.  You have to remember that CII and CUU are not permissible either, but double I and double U are sufficiently rare for this to be easy. 

Then you can use vowels with abandon in your remembrance techniques for the C words with vowels as middle letters.  Here are some phrases that might help you to remember the unusual words.

CA: my wide gaze

CE: LP (imagine the Church of England releasing an LP)

CI: Digits (C and I are both digits in Roman numerals)

CO: Salty Zero (C homophone for sea which is salty, and O looks like zero)

CU: Drumz 

There's a lot to remember/familiarise yourself with here, so let's summarise:

1. Non middle-vowel six: CLY, CRU, CWM, then CHA, CHE and CHI

2.  Only vowel pairs allowed, so CAA, CEE and COO

3. Then the others from: My Wide Gaze, LP, Digits, Salty Zero, and Drumz where vowels are ignored.

Good luck!  

Why not try the first test:  Test your B and C 3-letter words here
Or move on to the next lesson:  Lesson 5: The 3-letter D words