- 1). Make a list of the number of times each letter appears in the cryptogram. In the English language, the most frequently used letter by far is the letter E. In any given sentence of considerable length, it will often be the most prominently used letter. After that, the alphabet usage list of letters from most to least frequent is T, A, O, N, I, R, S, G, D, L, F, C, M, U, G, Y, P, W, B, V, K, X, J, Q, Z.
- 2). Look at the first and last letters in the encrypted words, if the encrypted message is separated by gaps in between the words. Some cryptograms are only a long string of letters, but for those that are separated into words, look at the frequency of the letters that appear at the beginning and end of the word. In the English language, the letters A, O, S, T and W are what more than 50 percent of words begin with. The letters D, E, S and T are what over 50 percent of all words end in.
- 3). Look for any singular letters. In the English language, the only words that consist of one letter are A and I.
- 4). Search the encrypted text for any double pairings of letters. There are several letters that appear doubled up frequently in the English language. The most frequently seen are CC, EE, FF, GG, LL, MM, NN, OO, PP, SS and TT.
- 5). Look for different letters in the encrypted message that appear together more than once. Certain letter combinations appear often together. The most often seen are AN, AT, ER, ES, OF, RE, TE and TH.
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