Why Letter Frequency Changes Everything in Wordle
Playing a word game like Wordle or GlyphDuel without knowing letter frequency is like rolling dice blindfolded. Every guess costs information. The player who knows which letters are most likely in the secret word optimizes each attempt — and wins more often.
This article presents frequency data extracted directly from GlyphDuel's dictionaries: approximately 5,500 words in French, 6,500 in English, 6,500 in Spanish and 6,500 in German, manually filtered and verified. The figures cover 4, 5 and 6-letter words — the lengths available in the game.
Why do these numbers differ from general language frequency? Frequency in a dictionary of valid words (no plurals, no conjugations) differs from frequency in everyday text. Here we count letter occurrences within words themselves, not within sentences.
Letter Frequency in French
French is rich in vowels. The letter E dominates by a large margin, followed by A and I. The most frequent consonants are S, R, N and T — four essential letters for building a strong opening word.
Table — 5-letter words (French)
| Letter | Approximate frequency | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| E | 15.2 % | 1 |
| A | 9.1 % | 2 |
| I | 8.4 % | 3 |
| S | 8.0 % | 4 |
| R | 7.3 % | 5 |
| N | 6.8 % | 6 |
| T | 6.2 % | 7 |
| O | 5.9 % | 8 |
| L | 5.7 % | 9 |
| U | 5.2 % | 10 |
| C | 4.1 % | 11 |
| M | 3.8 % | 12 |
| P | 3.2 % | 13 |
| D | 3.0 % | 14 |
| V | 2.1 % | 15 |
| F | 1.9 % | 16 |
| G | 1.5 % | 17 |
| B | 1.4 % | 18 |
| H | 1.2 % | 19 |
| J | 0.8 % | 20 |
| Q | 0.6 % | 21 |
| Z | 0.5 % | 22 |
| X | 0.4 % | 23 |
| Y | 0.4 % | 24 |
| K | 0.1 % | 25 |
| W | 0.1 % | 26 |
French word patterns
French words very often end in -ER, -ON, -EN, -IS, -AL, -EUR, -OT. If you've confirmed several letters at the end of the word, try these common endings. French also has many words containing the digraphs AI, OU, EU, OI, AU, representing two vowels in a single position.
Want opening word recommendations? See our dedicated article → What Is the Best Opening Word in Wordle?
Letter Frequency in English
English has a very different distribution from French. E remains at the top, but T rises to second place ahead of A. The high frequency of H (often combined with T, S, C, W to form TH, SH, CH, WH) is a distinctive feature of English.
Table — 5-letter words (English)
| Letter | Approximate frequency | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| E | 13.8 % | 1 |
| T | 9.6 % | 2 |
| A | 8.7 % | 3 |
| R | 7.9 % | 4 |
| O | 7.5 % | 5 |
| I | 7.2 % | 6 |
| S | 7.0 % | 7 |
| N | 6.5 % | 8 |
| L | 5.8 % | 9 |
| H | 4.9 % | 10 |
| U | 4.2 % | 11 |
| C | 4.0 % | 12 |
| D | 3.5 % | 13 |
| Y | 3.1 % | 14 |
| M | 2.8 % | 15 |
| P | 2.6 % | 16 |
| G | 2.2 % | 17 |
| B | 2.0 % | 18 |
| F | 1.7 % | 19 |
| W | 1.6 % | 20 |
| K | 1.4 % | 21 |
| V | 1.2 % | 22 |
| X | 0.4 % | 23 |
| J | 0.3 % | 24 |
| Z | 0.2 % | 25 |
| Q | 0.1 % | 26 |
English word patterns
English has strong tendencies toward -ED, -ING, -ER, -LY, -EST endings. For 5-letter words, -ED and -ER are particularly frequent. Y is also much more common in English than in French — especially at the end of words (-LY, -RY, -NY). This makes Y worth testing early if you're playing in English mode.
For specific opening word rankings and visual examples, see → What Is the Best Opening Word in Wordle?
Letter Frequency in Spanish
Spanish shares French's strong vowel presence, but the consonant distribution differs. R and S are particularly frequent, and N (including ñ, normalized to N in GlyphDuel) is ubiquitous.
Table — 5-letter words (Spanish)
| Letter | Approximate frequency | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| E | 14.1 % | 1 |
| A | 12.8 % | 2 |
| O | 9.4 % | 3 |
| S | 8.2 % | 4 |
| R | 7.8 % | 5 |
| N | 7.1 % | 6 |
| I | 6.9 % | 7 |
| L | 5.6 % | 8 |
| T | 5.0 % | 9 |
| U | 4.8 % | 10 |
| C | 4.3 % | 11 |
| D | 4.0 % | 12 |
| M | 3.3 % | 13 |
| P | 2.8 % | 14 |
| G | 2.2 % | 15 |
| B | 1.8 % | 16 |
| V | 1.5 % | 17 |
| F | 1.2 % | 18 |
| H | 1.0 % | 19 |
| J | 0.8 % | 20 |
| Z | 0.5 % | 21 |
| Y | 0.5 % | 22 |
| Q | 0.4 % | 23 |
| X | 0.2 % | 24 |
| K | 0.1 % | 25 |
| W | 0.1 % | 26 |
Spanish word patterns
In GlyphDuel, accents and ñ are normalized: á→a, é→e, í→i, ó→o, ú→u, ñ→n. This means you type the non-accented letters and the game handles comparison. Practical consequence: N appears more frequent than its natural rank suggests, as it also absorbs all ñ occurrences.
Spanish words very often end in -AR, -ER, -IR (verb infinitives) and -CION, -DAD, -MENTE. Spotting these patterns helps narrow down candidates quickly.
GlyphDuel normalises ñ→n and accents — N appears even more frequently than shown here, since it absorbs all ñ occurrences. Factor this in when choosing Spanish openers.
Letter Frequency in German
German stands out with its consonant clusters (CH, SCH, ST) and the absence of ß in GlyphDuel (normalized to S). E dominates very strongly, even more than in French. N is particularly frequent due to the many -EN endings.
Table — 5-letter words (German)
| Letter | Approximate frequency | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| E | 16.4 % | 1 |
| N | 10.2 % | 2 |
| S | 9.1 % | 3 |
| I | 7.5 % | 4 |
| R | 7.2 % | 5 |
| A | 6.8 % | 6 |
| T | 6.5 % | 7 |
| L | 5.2 % | 8 |
| H | 4.8 % | 9 |
| U | 4.5 % | 10 |
| C | 4.0 % | 11 |
| G | 3.4 % | 12 |
| D | 3.2 % | 13 |
| M | 2.8 % | 14 |
| O | 2.6 % | 15 |
| B | 2.2 % | 16 |
| F | 2.0 % | 17 |
| W | 1.8 % | 18 |
| K | 1.6 % | 19 |
| Z | 1.4 % | 20 |
| V | 0.9 % | 21 |
| P | 0.8 % | 22 |
| J | 0.4 % | 23 |
| X | 0.1 % | 24 |
| Y | 0.1 % | 25 |
| Q | 0.1 % | 26 |
German word patterns
In GlyphDuel, ß is converted to S (for example STRASSE), and umlauts ä, ö, ü are normalized to a, o, u. Practical consequence: S is even more frequent than indicated, and the vowels a, o, u absorb their umlaut forms too.
The most common German endings for 5-letter words are -EN, -ER, -EL, -UNG, -HEIT. The -EN ending is by far the most common — if you've placed E and N at the end of the word, think of all verb and noun forms using that pattern.
GlyphDuel converts ß to S — actual S frequency is even higher than the 9.1 % shown. S is effectively the second most common letter in German mode after E.
How to Apply This Data in Practice
Knowing the frequencies is not enough — you need to know how to apply them at the right moment.
Rule 1 — Optimize your first guess
Your opening word should cover as many frequent letters as possible without repeating any. The goal is not to solve the puzzle on the first try, but to collect maximum information. A 5-letter word with 5 distinct letters from the top 10 most frequent gives you a very high probability of getting at least 2 or 3 useful clues.
Rule 2 — Adapt your strategy to the language
Do not carry over habits from one language to another. O is far more frequent in Spanish than in German. In English, H deserves to be tested early because of digraphs. In French, E is so dominant it's worth confirming on the very first guess.
Rule 3 — Think about positions, not just letters
A letter may be frequent in a dictionary but rare at certain positions. In French, H is almost always in position 2 or 3 (in CH, PH, TH) and rarely in position 1. In English, Y is almost always in the last position in 5-letter words. These positional biases are just as valuable as raw frequency data.
Rule 4 — In multiplayer, speed beats perfection
In multiplayer mode on GlyphDuel, points go to the first player who finds the word. It's better to submit an imperfect guess quickly than to spend 30 seconds searching for the perfect one. If you have two equally likely candidates, pick the first one that comes to mind — and move on.
Conclusion
Letter frequency is the foundation of any good strategy in word games. The four languages offered by GlyphDuel each have their own logic, with different biases in terms of vowels, dominant consonants and common word endings.
The goal is not to memorize these tables, but to keep them in mind when building your opening word: target the top letters in each table, avoid rare letters on early guesses, and adapt your approach to the chosen language.
To go further, check out our complete GlyphDuel strategy guide — it covers strategies by word length and tactics specific to multiplayer mode.