What counts towards your score
In Melimelo, the French anagram game, a winning game is worth up to 1,000 points. The score combines three things: accuracy (how many wrong guesses you made), jokers (about 60 points each) and time, measured against a reference time of 2 min 30 s at medium difficulty. Finishing in half that time earns up to 200 bonus points; going well beyond it costs points, with a capped penalty.
Mistakes weigh less and less: the first costs about 50 points, the second about 35, and so on. The tips below are about finding words fast and right, without panicking after a slip.
1. Read the hint before touching the letters
The hint is your best tool. One, two or three French words are often enough to make the answer pop: "Petit rongeur" (small rodent) with S, I, O, U, R, S gives SOURIS, the French for mouse, without moving a single tile. Take two seconds to read the hint, count the letters and think of a word of that length.
If nothing comes, the hint is still a useful filter. It tells you the topic (food, nature, feelings) and the kind of word: a noun or an adjective, since verbs are kept out of the grids.
2. Spot common French endings
French builds a lot of words with the same endings. As soon as you see these letters on the rack, try them at the end of the word:
- -AGE (COURAGE, VOYAGE), -TION (NATION, POTION);
- -EUR and -EUSE (CHALEUR, HEUREUSE);
- -ETTE and -ELLE (BAGUETTE, SEMELLE);
- -IER and -IERE (POMMIER, LUMIERE), -ISTE, -ABLE, -MENT.
Once the ending is in place, only three or four letters are left for the start, and the word becomes much easier to see.
3. Build consonant pairs
French consonants cluster in set patterns: CH, QU, BR, TR, PL, GR, ST… A Q is almost always followed by a U. Spot these pairs on the rack, then fit the vowels around them. If two tiles are identical, think of double letters (LL, SS, TT, NN, MM), which are very common in French.
4. Clear the easy words first
You can tackle the five words in any order. Scan the list first and solve the ones that jump out, often the shortest. You save time for the speed bonus and come back to the hard ones with a clear head.
If a word won't budge, don't force it: move on and come back later. On a computer, the up and down arrow keys jump between unsolved words without leaving the keyboard.
5. Dare a plausible guess
A wrong guess isn't wasted. The game locks every correctly placed letter in blue, which often narrows the problem down to two or three squares. If you are torn between two letter orders, try the likelier one: the fix usually follows.
In points, a first mistake costs a little less than a joker, and later ones even less. What really costs you is staring at a rack for several minutes.
6. Keep the joker for a real block
The joker reveals one letter of the selected word, in an unknown position, and locks it. It costs about 60 points. It pays off when you have no serious candidate, even after rereading the hint and shuffling the letters: one well-placed letter, especially the first, is often enough to crack the word.
Before using a joker, try a guess if you have one: it can reveal several letters at once, for less.
7. Practise over time
Anagrams are a skill you can train. The more you play, the faster you recognise French endings and syllables at a glance. The grid changes every day, and the archives let you replay past grids with a free account.
To review the rules, read how to play Melimelo. And if you enjoy playing with letters, try our games like Scrabble.