Medium cryptograms

Where to start on a medium cryptogram

One letter is given here, so the way in is word shape rather than frequency. Scan for short words before long ones. A two-letter word is drawn from a small set: OF, TO, IN, IT, IS, AS, AT, ON, BE, OR, AN. If two different two-letter words share their first symbol, that symbol is likely a vowel.

Doubled letters are the other lever. English doubles LL, EE, SS, OO, TT and FF far more than anything else, so a repeated pair inside a word narrows quickly. An apostrophe followed by a single letter is S or T; followed by two, it is usually RE, VE or LL.

Whatever you try, remember the rule that makes the puzzle finite: one symbol stands for one letter throughout, and no two symbols share a letter. If a guess forces the same plain letter into two different symbols, it is wrong regardless of how well it reads.