NYT Connections hint (Fri, 8 May)

Looking for some Connections hints to help with today's puzzle on Friday, 8th May? You can't be on top of your game every day—and you get an extra pass since it's Friday! After a long week of work, you deserve a little rest.

If you're grasping for the last few Connections today, we've got subtle hints or full answers for you so you can tick the puzzle off your to-do list.

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:

• LEFT FIELD
• MAKING OUT
• JEANS BACK POCKET
• TONSIL HOCKEY
• BURGER KING WHOPPER
• THIN AIR
• SCHOOL CROSSING SIGN
• PITCHER'S MOUND
• FIRST BASE
• HOME PLATE
• FILM NERD
• THE PENTAGON
• THE BLUE
• MEMENTO
• NECKING
• NOWHERE

Connections hint for Friday 8th May

Here are your Connections hints for today:

• Yellow hint: Oh-la-la!
• Green hint: Count the sides.
• Blue hint: Caught off guard.
• Purple hint: Add an 'S'.
• Extra hint 1: Focus on the end of some words.
• Extra hint 2: Every group has at least one word containing the letter 'T'

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

• Yellow: Making Out
• Green: Home Plate
• Blue: Nowhere
• Purple: Film Nerd

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: Canoodling
• Green: Five-Sided Things
• Blue: Unexpected Places To Be 'Out Of'
• Purple: Ending In Candy Brands Minus 'S'

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 Friday, 8th May:

• Yellow: Canoodling (First Base, Making Out, Necking, Tonsil Hockey)
• Green: Five-Sided Things (Home Plate, Jeans Back Pocket, School Crossing Sign, The Pentagon)
• Blue: Unexpected Places To Be 'Out Of' (Left Field, Nowhere, The Blue, Thin Air)
• Purple: Ending In Candy Brands Minus 'S' (Burger King Whopper, Film Nerd, Momento, Pitcher's Mound)

If you managed to figure out the purple group without the use of any of our hints, I would like to personally congratulate you. That is one of the trickest groups I've done. I was jealous of you all that I didn't have this guide to use myself! It can be a tough job making the Connections guides, but it's a cross I am happy to bear.

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!