How to play Bingola

Setup

To play Bingola you need to have or to organise the following:

• Anywhere from 2 to 200 players. The only required skill is knowing the alphabet well.
• An organiser with a Bingola wordlist. One wordlist per game. The organiser does not play. The wordlist can be one of the following:
• Bingola A4 paper wordlist (one per game) OR
• the Wordlist generating console available here on the Bingola website, OR
• the Wordlist generating Microsoft Office application
• Bingola paper tickets. One for each ordinary player.
• A pen or dauber for each player, to mark the ticket

The rules of the game

• The organiser slowly reads out the words from their online or printed wordlist. If the word is a homophone or has varied spelling, the word is spelled out.
• After hearing a word, a player ticks off any matching letter or letter-vowel combination found on their ticket. For example, if the word is frog, then a player can tick off F, R, Ro or G on their ticket.
• When a player ticks off every letter on their ticket, they shout "Bingola" to the organiser.
• Once the organiser verifies that the player ticked off the letters correctly (a simple process) that player wins the game.

Bingola dictionaries

There are currently five Bingola dictionaries. The full dictionary has over 9,000 words. The junior dictionaries are divided into four grades, ranging from about 600 words to 2,700 words.

Full dictionary

The full dictionary includes 9,000 commonly used words of all types in English. The dictionary is suitable for both adults, high school students and senior primary school students. The list includes common first names and very famous places.

Each word requires only the 26 letters of the alphabet. There are no apostrophes or hyphens needed.

Most of the words in Bingola are root words, which are simple or unmodified words. Although words in English can be modified to turn nouns into verbs or adjectives into adverbs, most of these words will not appear in the dictionary. This however is more like a guideline. For various practical reasons both a root word and a modified word may appear in the dictionary. Occasionally only the modified word appears.

Vulgar and slang words are excluded from the dictionary. Words that describe serious crimes, diseases, death or traumas are mostly excluded. We try to make sure anyone going through a difficult experience is not directly reminded of that difficulty during the game. If this dictionary was on television, we'd rate the full dictionary as PG, and the graded dictionaries as G.

Spelling

Internationally agreed English spelling is used in the standard version of Bingola. Any regional dictionaries used will be clearly marked.

Quite a few words sound exactly the same (homophones) or sound very similar, even though they’re spelt differently. For example, "you" and "ewe" has the same pronunciation, but contain completely different letters. The Bingola word list identifies homophones and near homophones in each wordlist. These words will be spelt out after they are announced.

Whether a particular spelling of a word is internationally accepted might be doubted for some people in some regions. Some regions have two variant spellings for particular words in regular use. Bingola is not intended to be an authority on words or spar debate. Such words should also be spelt out. If necessary, the organiser can acknowledge the validity of any alternative spelling.

Bingola is not intended as a spelling test. If a player asks for a word to be spelt out, then the caller should promptly do so.

Full dictionary examples

Here is a sample of the 9,000 word regular Bingola dictionary:

Junior dictionaries

The junior dictionaries are suitable for primary school students or any young child who knows the alphabet. The junior dictionary is also suitable for any group where it's useful to avoid complex words.

There are four grades of junior dictionary. These approximate grades 1 to 4 of primary or elementary school. Grade 1 is suitable for children who have just learnt the alphabet. If students become familiar with the words in their grade, they may find it suitable to jump up a grade or two.

The dictionaries include up to 2,700 of the most commonly used and easily understood words in English with internationally agreed spelling. Unlike the regular dictionary, the graded junior lists do not include first names, places or proper nouns.

Long words are avoided, unless they are especially common to younger children. All words are suitable for children and have no adult themes. If this dictionary was a movie or television program, it would be rated G.

Here is a sample of the Grade 1 Bingola dictionary:

Here is a sample of the Grade 4 Bingola dictionary:

It is not expected that children at a particular grade know the meaning of every word in the dictionary, nor do they need to know how to spell every word. It is the decision of the organiser just how much to challenge each student, by the speed of play and deciding how many words are spelt out.

Ideally, children playing Bingola should feel the game is decided upon their skill in matching, rather than their ability to spell words. Children should be encouraged to speak up and ask questions about the meaning of words and how to spell them.

If you come up against a problem in any dictionary, don't hesitate to let us know. This includes spelling and identifying homophones.

Tips and tricks

Bingola doesn't require any special training, however here are some tips and tricks to get the most out of Bingola

Daubers vs pens

Daubers are coloured ink pens with spongy tips. They are currently used to mark off numbers on bingo cards. They are also known as bingo dotters and dabbers. A dauber is the easiest sort of pen to play Bingola.

When running regular events, it's not expensive to purchase a few daubers for the players. They cost between $2 to $4 each, depending on what sort of deal you can find. They are available online, at newsagents and in department stores.

In a classroom setting, there is no need to buy a dauber. Any pen or texta can be used. Even a pencil can be used. Just cross through the letter.

The Bingola package doesn't usually come with daubers or pens. If you'd like us to organise daubers, we're happy to help. Just let us know on your order, under Special instructions, how many daubers you need and we'll include it in your parcel.

Handing out tickets

The simplest way to start a Bingola event is to hand out all the tickets at the start. If you want to play 6 games, hand out each player 6 games. It doesn't matter which ticket a player uses first.

If you have a large number of players, it could be faster to prepare in advance. You could staple packs of tickets together, such as four or six at a time. Then you can quickly hand out tickets when your players arrive. This method reduces the chance of wasting tickets or giving out the wrong number of tickets.

Two ticket game

To increase the challenge and excitement of Bingola, it's possible to give each player two tickets in a game. In a two ticket game, if a player hears a letter in a word, they can tick off that letter in one ticket or in both tickets, all within the same turn.

Make sure all the players agree to this variation, because any player using just one ticket will be at a disadvantage.

No pattern games

In numeric Bingo, it's possible to win based on a pattern, such as a single row or the outer edge. Unfortunately, these variations on the game do not work with Bingola. It alters the outcome of the game somewhat unfairly.

Tiebreaking

Like most games, two players can win a Bingola game at the same time, even though they have different tickets. For example, if a player is waiting for a Q and another player is waiting for an Z, the word Quiz would cause both players to win at the same time.

We have tested Bingola for millions of games. We find that approximately one game in ten (1:10) ends up with a tie. One game in sixty (1:60) results in a tie of three or more players.

Here are some methods for handling ties with Bingola:

1. Allow ties and share prizes

Our recommended method for Bingola is to accept that some games end in a tie and declare joint winners. This method is in the spirit of this light-hearted game of luck.

If you are giving out prizes, such as sweets or drink vouchers, it is easy to give away this small prize to every winner. If you plan to play ten games, then it is probably one game will be tied. You may need to have 12 or 14 sweets or vouchers on hand.

2. Next word method

A tie-breaking system is built into the optional Bingola electronic console based on Microsoft Office. The caller reads out one or more words. Players count how many matches they have for each new word called. As soon as one player has an extra match, they win the tiebreak.

Under this system, the tie is resolved within one or two extra words. This system always results in single winner, even if several words need to be called. This method can be used without the help electronic console, but it's harder to verify the tie-broken result.

To use this tiebreaking method manually:

1. Validate each of the tickets in the tiebreak, and return them back to the final players
2. Announce the next word
3. Let the final players tell you how many letters on the tickets match with the next word.
4. If one player matches more than the others, they win the tie-break
5. If they match equally, continue calling out words until the tie is broken and someone wins outright

3. First to call out

Another way to resolve ties is to award the win to the first person to shout “Bingola”. This method has the difficulty that one person may be louder than another. If nobody has distinctly shouted first, it is still best to consider it a tie, rather than waste time on a dispute.