(I never said it waseasy.)

If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day,bookmark this page.

Below, Ill give you some oblique hints at todays Connections answers.

And further down the page, Ill reveal the themes and the answers.

Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!

Does todays Connections game require any special knowledge?

Theres one grouping that uses terms you may remember from grade school.

Green category - Oh my!

Blue category - On the first day…

Purple category - Sticky sweet.

Does todays Connections game involve any wordplay?

Theres a fill-in-the-blank for the purple category again.

Theres also a category where were not looking at the wordsmeaningsso much as we are theirusage.

(If youre stumped, ask yourself: when would you say this word?)

Ready to hear the answers?

Keep scrolling if you want a little more help.

BEWARE: Spoilers follow for todays Connections puzzle!

Were about to give away some of the answers.

Scroll slowly if you dont want the whole thing spoiled.

(The full solution is a bit further down.)

What are the ambiguous words in todays Connections?

SIMPLE can mean, simply, uncomplicated.

(Heres a recipe for a citrus-brightened one.)

What are the categories in todays Connections?

Yellow: GRAMMAR TENSE TERMS

Green: GRACIOUS ME!

I give them all away below.

What are the yellow words in todays Connections?

The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward.

What are the green words in todays Connections?

The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest.

The theme for todays green category is GRACIOUS ME!

and the words are: GOODNESS, HEAVENS, LORD, MERCY.

What are the blue words in todays Connections?

The blue grouping is the second-hardest.

What are the purple words in todays Connections?

The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest.

can go with MERCY!

as a thing you exclaim.

Next I saw PAST and PRESENT, and realized the next grouping must be tenses.

But FUTURE, PERFECT, and SIMPLE could all fitso which is the odd one out?

Thats when I realized why MAPLE was here.

Its asyrup, just like SIMPLE syrup, CORN syrup, and COUGH syrup.

Then I submitted my tenses: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE, PERFECT.

Youll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase.

Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common.

Select four items and hit the Submit button.

If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed.

(Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.)

If your guess was incorrect, youll get a chance to loop back and try.

You win when youve correctly identified all four groups.

But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.

Expect to see overlapping groups.

So dont hit submit until youve confirmed that your group of four containsonlythose four things.

If youre stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to havenoconnection to the others.

Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!