NYT Connections hint (Mon, 30 Mar)

Looking for some Connections hints to help with today's puzzle on Monday, 30th March? We're here to help! There is nothing worse than watching your streak slip away... Okay, maybe some things are worse than that, but losing your streak still sucks!

That's why we created this Connections Companion. Here, you will find both subtle hints and full answers so you can clear yet another NYT puzzle!

How to play Connections

Connections is one of the most popular (and challenging) daily puzzle games published by the New York Times (owners of Wordle). The aim of Connections is to group the 16 words of the day into four groups, where each group of four words has a common theme.

For instance, the words "Hook", "Nana", "Peter", and "Wendy" are all Peter Pan characters. Or to take another example, "Action", "Ballpark", "Go", and "Stick" are all words which commonly come just before the word "Figure". These are the kinds of Connections you'll need to make to solve the puzzle.

Your job is to figure out what these themes are that connect the various words together - but be wary, because a lot of the time there are deceptive red herring connections placed purely to throw you off! To win the game, you have to find all four Connections without making 4 mistakes. On your fourth mistake, the game is over and the answer is revealed automatically.

Each of the four groups in each day's Connections puzzle is also assigned a different colour, which represents how easy or difficult the Connection is to find. These colours are: Yellow (Easiest), Green (Easy), Blue (Medium), and Purple (Hardest).

Click here to play today's Connections puzzle!

Connections hint: Today's Connections words

Below you'll find various hints for today's Connections. Each of the below hints will make it progressively easier for you to solve today's puzzle. First we'll reveal the words in today's Connections, followed by our Connections hint for each group. Then we'll reveal one word inside each group, followed by the groups themselves; and finally, at the bottom of this page, we'll reveal the answers to today's Connections puzzle. Here are the 16 Connections words for today:

• TRUFFLES
• AVIS
• BUDGET
• DOLLAR
• DUMMY
• ERSATZ
• FAUX
• FRITZ
• FUTZ
• HERTZ
• MESS
• MOCK
• PLAYS
• TINKER
• TOY
• YUTZ

Connections hint for Monday 30th March

Here are your Connections hints for today:

• Yellow hint: Not the real deal.
• Green hint: To handle or experiment with.
• Blue hint: Found at the counter, keys included.
• Purple hint: Familiar names with a little extra spice at the start.
• Extra hint 1: One category involves altering the word in front of you.
• Extra hint 2: Every group has at least one word containing the letter 'Z'

If you need a bit more help, tap the spoiler text below to reveal one word belonging to each group:

• Yellow: Ersatz
• Green: Futz
• Blue: Hertz
• Purple: Fritz

Spoiler warning! Today's Connections groups are revealed just below!

Connections hints: All of today's Connections groups

If you need an even bigger clue to figure out today's Connections puzzle, below we'll reveal the four correct Connections groups - the themes which link together each set of four words in the Connections grid.

Here are the Connections groups for today:

• Yellow: Imitation
• Green: Play Around (With)
• Blue: Car Rental Companies
• Purple: Snack Brands Plus Starting Letter

Now that you know the themes for the various different Connections in today's puzzle, see if you can solve it! If not, check below for the full answer.

Spoiler warning! Today's Connections answer lies ahead!

Connections answer today

Here is the answer to today's Connections puzzle on Monday, 30th March:

• Yellow: Imitation (Dummy, Ersatz, Faux, Mock)
• Green: Play Around (With) (Futz, Mess, Tinker, Toy)
• Blue: Car Rental Companies (Avis, Budget, Dollar, Hertz)
• Purple: Snack Brands Plus Starting Letter (Fritz, Plays, Truffles, Yutz)

You made it to the end of another Connections puzzle! Hopefully you still have a firm grasp on your sanity, too. I wish I could say the same. Both the yellow and green groups had words that could loosely fit into either category, and that tripped me up big time! My biggest hurdle, though, was the word 'ersatz.'

Connections tests your vocabulary as well as your puzzle-solving skills, and that word was not registered in mine! Not knowing the meaning of a word makes it pretty tough to categorize correctly. Luckily I was able to figure it out, and now I have a brand new word tucked away in my mind dictionary! You learn something new every day with Connections.

Congratulations if you got today's Connections answer right, with or without the help of our handy hints above! And if you didn't succeed today, don't worry - a new Connections puzzle is released every day at midnight, so you can try again tomorrow, just like with Wordle!