Looking at the partially revealed word "_e______", I notice 'e' is in the second position. Since I've already guessed a, e, i, r, and t with limited success, I should focus on common letters I haven't tried yet. 'S' is one of the most frequent consonants in English and appears in many words, particularly at the beginning and end of words. It could potentially reveal a pattern like "se_____" or "_e___s__" which would give me more information for future guesses while I still have 2 wrong guesses left.