Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.
What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Connections today (game #435) - today's words
Today's NYT Connections words are…
- FOLK
- WARRIOR
- COCONUT
- TREE
- SOULMATE
- ROCK
- CHAIR
- BUN
- MOUNTAIN
- MUSTARD
- COUNTRY
- UPDO
- SAUERKRAUT
- WALLET
- BLUES
- BRAT
NYT Connections today (game #435) - hint #1 - group hints
What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Listen up
- Green: Sausage feast
- Blue: Twist and turn
- Purple: Animated classics
Need more clues?
We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections today (game #435) - hint #2 - group answers
What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: MUSIC GENRES
- GREEN: BRATWURST GO-WITHS
- BLUE: YOGA POSES
- PURPLE: STARTING WITH PIXAR MOVIES
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #435) - the answers
The answers to today's Connections, game #435, are…
- YELLOW: MUSIC GENRES BLUES, COUNTRY, FOLK, ROCK
- GREEN: BRATWURST GO-WITHS BRAT, BUN, MUSTARD, SAUERKRAUT
- BLUE: YOGA POSES CHAIR, MOUNTAIN, TREE, WARRIOR
- PURPLE: STARTING WITH PIXAR MOVIES COCONUT, SOULMATE, UPDO, WALLET
- My rating: Hard
- My score: 3 mistakes
Wow, what is the NYT doing? After yesterday's very, very difficult Connections puzzle – which I failed – comes one that's arguably even harder. I solved this one, but only with huge amounts of luck and – I'll be honest here – what could amount to cheating.
And it all started so well. Yellow, MUSIC GENRES, stood out right away. But that was as easy as it got. With 12 words left I couldn't assemble any into any more groups. Nothing worked. Eventually, I realized that UPDO and WALLET both contained Pixar movies – UP and WALL-E – but I couldn't find two more. I guessed it was probably COCONUT (COCO) and SOULMATE (SOUL or MATE) simply because I couldn't see suitable words within the other answers. But I wasn't 100% sure, so I checked Google for a list of Pixar movies and yes, those two were among them. Is that cheating? Possibly, but it was necessary today.
That still left me with eight seemingly unrelated words, but I did have three that appeared to go together in SAUERKRAUT, BUN and MUSTARD, which appeared to all be food-related. However, I couldn't think of what the fourth could be, so guessed randomly and on my final chance got BRAT as the fourth. No, I would never have realized BRAT was a shorthand for BRATWURST (possibly because I'm vegetarian) but even if it is, surely it shouldn't be included here as a BRATWURST GO-WITH? It doesn't 'go with' bratwurst, it is bratwurst!
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, 18 August, game #434)
- YELLOW: ALARM CLOCK BUTTONS ALARM, HOUR, SNOOZE, TIME SET
- GREEN: “HERE’S A THOUGHT ...” PERHAPS, SAY, SUPPOSE, WHAT IF
- BLUE: CANDY PIECES KISS, NERD, RUNT, WHOPPER
- PURPLE: SEVEN DWARFS MINUS LAST LETTER DO, DOPE, GRUMP, SLEEP
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.
It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
