I just learned the second shout and then ended up killing a dragon and getting its soul but the shout still says I need a dragon soul.

My question is do some shouts need more than one dragon soul or did something wonky happen?

All shouts have 3 words. Each word requires a dragon soul. Once unlocked though, any given word should stay unlocked forever.

It says Fire Breath and then fire. When I try and activate it it says Dragon Souls are required.

So do I need more words or more souls to unlock fire breath?

@GenghisJohn: You need to press a button to spend a soul on that shout.

@AlisterCat: Holy shit I am retarded. Thank you!

@Shadow said:

All shouts have 3 words. Each word requires a dragon soul. Once unlocked though, any given word should stay unlocked forever.

To add: some shouts, particularly those unlocked through the main story, have all 3 words unlocked the moment that you learn the shout. Generally speaking, no souls are required for these story-specific shouts. Further, most 'regular shouts' have 3 tiers of use (Word 1, Word 1+2, Word 1+2+3). Some of the story-unlocked shouts require you to use all three words in order to take effect. For instance,

... requires all three words to be said. It should also be noted that the 'cooldown' time for shouts vary. Quickly summoning fire has, say, a 30 second cooldown. Summoning all three words of fire has a 100 second cooldown, but is far more destructive.

@GenghisJohn said:

@AlisterCat: Holy shit I am retarded. Thank you!

lol

How can you unlock next words for shouts you already know? Do you have to find them in the world or does simply using souls work?

Also: how can you get better spells other than the ones found in spell books scattered in the wild? Do you have to achieve a certain skill level? Can you buy them? I have about 30 destruction and it sucks to only be using the very first fire spell.

@Zidane_24: Yeah, I found one 2nd word of a shout (fire breath) in the world once, but wondered if you can somehow use souls to upgrade the shouts.

Thanks for the tips.

@GenghisJohn: Don't worry I totally did the same thing the first time.

@imsh_pl: Well, I mean, you need to spend a second dragon soul to unlock the stronger version of the shout, but that's pretty much where it ends. Total of three souls per shout.

Are dragon words in particular kinds of locations?

@jaycrockett: There are word walls up in the mountains, usually something nasty hanging out close by each of them, too.

@jaycrockett said:

Are dragon words in particular kinds of locations?

If you go talk to the Greybeards, I believe they will sometimes mark certain shouts on your map.

@GenghisJohn:

I'm came really close to flagging this because you said the word 'noob'.