Repeated letters are scored by copy, not just by letter. Match greens first, then account for remaining copies to understand yellow and grey tiles
Repeated letters are counted by copy
In a five-letter word game, each letter in the answer is a separate copy to account for. If the answer contains one R and your guess contains two, only one guessed R can be marked as present. The other has no answer copy left to match, even though that same letter has already earned a green tile elsewhere
Green tiles claim their copies first
Consider the supplied words queen and excel, with queen as the answer and excel as the guess. The E in the fourth position is green because it matches the answer there. The E in the first position is yellow because queen has another E in a different place. Together, the two clues account for the answer’s two Es
How to read a repeated letter
Green
A correctly placed copy is matched first and reserved for that tile
Yellow or grey
After greens are counted, another copy can be yellow if it exists elsewhere in the answer. Any extra guessed copy with nothing left to match is grey
Why a green and a grey can coexist
Imagine the answer is crank, which contains one R. If a guess puts R in the correct second position and repeats R in another position, the correctly placed R is green and the extra R is grey. The grey does not mean the green was wrong: it says there is no second R in the answer for that extra tile
See the rule in a full board
A clue sequence for crank
This board has no repeated letters in its answer, so it does not show a duplicate-grey clue. It does show how each tile reports on one letter at one position: a green confirms both, a yellow confirms the letter but not its position, and a grey means no unused copy matches that tile
A reliable way to score repeats mentally
Lock in the greens
Mark every exact-position match first. Count each green as one copy of that letter in the answer
Check the copies left
For each repeated letter, compare the number guessed with the number the clues can support. A correctly placed copy is already accounted for
Read the remaining tiles
A remaining copy in another position can be yellow. A guessed copy beyond the answer’s count is grey, even if another tile with that letter is green
What a grey duplicate tells you
A grey tile for a repeated letter sets a limit: the answer has no additional copy available for that tile. It does not always prove the letter is entirely absent. If another copy is green or yellow, the letter is present, but the grey duplicate narrows the count
The answer has one R. Your guess has an R in the correct position and a second R elsewhere. What can the clues show?
Reveal answer
The correct answer is option 1: the green tile uses the answer’s only R, so the extra guessed R has no remaining copy to match and is grey
Before you choose your next guess
- Count copies of a letter, not just the number of tiles showing that letter
- Treat greens as already matched before deciding whether another copy can be yellow
- Use a grey duplicate to limit the count, rather than automatically ruling out the whole letter
- Keep position clues separate from count clues: a green fixes both, while a yellow fixes only the presence of that copy