Common mistakes and how to avoid them

Almost every argument on SoyTaboo comes from a rule nobody stated or a button pressed too late. The app does not referee speech. It records what you tap. This list walks through the slips that repeat most often and what to do in the moment, without restarting the night. Scoring rules are in Taboo and Time Trial. How to build a sentence is in good clues.

Saying a form of the forbidden word

The card says “rain” and the clue-giver says “raining.” At some tables that is Taboo. At others, only the exact word counts. Both customs are playable. The mistake is discovering which one you are using after the point has already been argued. Before the first turn that counts, pick one. The simplest rule for a new group: obvious forms, diminutives and a translation into another language also subtract, if the group hears them as the same word.

If it already happened and there was no agreement, do not rewrite the score by hand for five minutes. State the rule for the next card and continue. The Taboo button subtracts one when it is tapped. There is no undo button.

Showing the phone to the guessers

In Taboo, the target word is written large. If the guessing team sees it, the turn stops being a clue game. The clue-giver and the person watching forbidden words look at the screen. Everyone else listens. Hold the phone against your chest between cards if you are sitting very close.

In Time Trial the problem is the same with five words at once. Marking a hit while showing the list “to help” tells the onlooker the other four. The clue-giver marks by ear, without turning the screen around.

Starting the clock before reading the card

The turn starts when you tap the start button, not when the clue-giver finishes thinking. If you read in silence for three seconds, those seconds belong to the team. That is fine. What is not fine is tapping and then asking how to play. The explanation comes first. A practice turn, even of one card, keeps you from spending the first round on a tutorial.

Closing the tab does not stop that clock. When you return, the saved game subtracts the time that passed. If you need a real break, end the turn or go home. The help page explains this with the browser's storage.

Mixing up Skip and Taboo

Skip means “not this card, and the score stays the same.” Taboo means “a forbidden word was said, and one point comes off.” The checker sometimes taps Taboo because the clue was weak, not because the word was said. That punishes a style, not an infraction. A weak clue is fixed by skipping or by describing better, not by a subtraction.

The reverse happens too: the clue-giver says the forbidden word, the team still shouts the answer, and someone taps Correct by reflex. The point is added. A useful habit is that the checker speaks first. A spoken “Taboo,” and only then a look at the button. If both happen at once, the table rule can be that the infraction wins and you tap Taboo, not Correct. Say it beforehand, because the app will not choose for you.

Over-marking in Time Trial

The clue-giver taps a word nobody said, or taps two at once. During the turn you can tap again to clear it. After time is up, the calculation has already used those hits. Read the list aloud before the turn closes if the dice roll was high: one extra hit changes the result by a point, and with a five or a six that point decides whether the turn lands on zero or below.

A negative result does not push the score under zero. A team with two points and a result of minus three ends on zero, not on minus one. If someone argues that “the app took too much,” check that rule before you replay. It is in the Time Trial guide, with a table of examples.

Playing apart as if there were a room

There is not one. Each person at home does not receive cards or a shared clock. Reading the word over the phone ruins the clue for the other group, and showing the screen on a video call depends on the framing. If you are in different places, pick another time to play in the same room. Forcing a remote game usually ends with one person describing alone while the others cannot see the timer.

Teams of one, or impossible sizes

With three people you can describe and guess in rotation, but the app asks for two teams. Enter two names and accept that the score is a count, not a final between equal sides. With ten or twelve people around one phone, half of them cannot hear. Split the table or rotate who is in the turn and who waits quietly. The groups guide gives a concrete sequence.

Arguing afterwards and changing the rule mid-night

A ten-second doubt is settled with the rule you already had. A doubt that changes the rule is written down for the next game. Changing mid-turn — gestures count now, now they do not, now a word form does not subtract — makes the team that is behind feel the score moved by decree. If you like the new variant, finish the round with the old rule and apply the new one when you start again.

If a card is badly written or a word makes no sense, do not fight the other team. Skip it and, if you want it corrected, send the word through the contact page or the feedback button. Include the word and what should change. You do not need the name of the person who was playing.

Losing the connection when you pick a new category

Cards are requested when a game starts. A game that has already loaded can continue for a while. Choosing another category, or opening Time Trial after Taboo, asks for data again. If the network fails on that change, you have not run out of words. Try again from the home screen when you have a signal. Meanwhile you can rehearse a clue angle aloud with a word you invent, and no score.