I've played and noticed that if I learn a new word of power, I need to kill a dragon in order to gain his soul so I can actually use the new word. However, I started a new game on a different console and I have a new situation. I have 1 word of power and 1 dragon kill. I haven't yet gone up to talk to the greybeards. I just now killed my 2nd dragon and acquired his soul. Now, when I learn my next word of power, can I use it immediately, or did I just waste this dragon's soul?

Dragon souls build up until you use them. No waste here.

You can still use it.

You can avoid that part of the main quest.

So, when I find that semi-circle word totur stone, I'll be able to use the word immediately, instead of needing to go kill a dragon, because i've got one extra dragon soul?

Does anybody have any idea if I could check how many extra dragon souls I have?

I'm worried about a situation like this.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111111160330AAragqr

I'm not sure if I must find the words before I kill the dragons, or if using the words are retroactive regarding whether or not the soul or the word comes first.

Oh.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111112095558AACnPMl

It says We have a dragon soul currency in the bottom right of the shout menu. I wonder how I can use it, though. All is good and nothing is wasted

in your 'shouts' section under the magic menu, you can see how many souls you have collected. Then you can use them to unlock the shouts as you find them. Or not, I have maybe five shouts unlocked, the rest still locked, and maybe 30 souls piled up because i cant be bothered unlocking the ones i dont use.

the person in the link just doesnt know how to apply the shout to the word. When you select the locked shout, it says at the bottom of the screen to push 'r' (on PC) to unlock. He must have missed that.

Oh, wow, so I can indeed manually unlock shouts. That's good to know.

In Bleak Falls Barrow, you get a word. After you kill the first dragon outside of whiterun, you automatically learn the word. Bethesday could have used that moment to do an "apply Dragon Soul to Power Word" tutorial, although that would have taken away from the epic moment that is a player's first dragon kill and the worship of the nords around him.

push your journal-key, and go to the Help section...there's a bit about Shouts too.

Yeah, the first few words get unlocked automatically, and that can confuse people. I have seen people asking about this quite a lot.

I have about 12 extra souls. I wounder what will happen if I run out of words.

The souls just keep building up i guess. no other use for them.

I'm about to enter this cave with spider egg sacs, which is near my latest dragon kill. I'm frikin' terrified of spiders, but I need to search far and wide for these power words.

Holy Cow! The spiders tagged a Mammoth.

Youll love these spiders then!!!

if you want more words, you should go see the greybeards.

You wouldn't GUESS who came across after I killed this spiders...

A den of Frikin' VAMPIRES!

Nice. Sounds like youre starting to enjoy the game.