How to Play

In a root ladder, there are several clues to help you find the solution sentence and solve the puzzle. On this page I'll explain each of them using an example puzzle. I'm giving you the solution sentence to this puzzle first so that the clues are easier to grasp. This solution sentence is the same example sentence from the "What is a Root Ladder" page. All the clues on this page will refer to this sentence. Here it is.

كتب الكبير على الكرسي درساً

("Translation: “The old man on the chair wrote a lesson)

#1: Picture (صورة)

The picture depicts what is happening in the solution sentence. Pretty straightforward. Sometimes there will be little random comments or speech bubbles. Those are just for fun.

EXAMPLE OF THIS CLUE

#2: Helper Sentence (الجملة المساعدة)

The "helper sentence" is a sentence whose meaning is very similar to that of the solution sentence. The helper sentence does not follow the "shared consonants" rule. It might not have the same number of words as the solution sentence. It also might have slightly different prepositions and syntax.

EXAMPLE OF THIS CLUE

كمل الختيارعلى قطعة الأثاث تمرينا تعليميا

(Translation: “The old man on the piece of furniture completed an educational exercise ”)

#3: Sentence Structure (الهيكل)

 The "sentence structure" shows you how many words are in the solution sentence. The words you have to find (by applying the shared-consonant rule) are listed as blanks. The sentence structure also provides prepositions and other grammatical particles (ie. the words that are exempt from the shared-consonant rule).

EXAMPLE OF THIS CLUE

ـاً

الـ

على

الـ

#4: First Word (الكلمة الأولى) + Last Word (الكلمة الأخيرة)

If you need some extra help, you can peek at the first and/or last word of the solution sentence. This is the clue you're given in a traditional word ladder.

EXAMPLE OF THIS CLUE

First Word = كتب

Last Word = درساً

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That's all!

In the puzzles on this blog, I've hidden the clues so that they only appear if you click on the appropriate button. That way you can control the difficulty of a puzzle by only using the clues you want.

Have fun playing Root Ladder!