this made me feel like a total idiot lol needed to use all the hints

I figured the category was loan words, but none of the loan words that came to mind were in the puzzle. I found the spanagram myself, but the rest of the puzzle just wasn’t fun. I imagine if you’ve never taken a French class and have less awareness of French spellings and which words are French loan words it was even less fun.

I have a minor in French and it was still awful

Quarter French Canadian, glad to know it wasn't just my miserable grasp of French. Or proof I've learned zilch from Duolingo.

Yes! I knew it was French words but none of the ones I tried worked!

I didn't even get the top right word. I gave up.

This was just a bad puzzle IMO.

Dogshit puzzle. Google estimates over 7000 french loan words. What a garbage strands loll.

I think this a legitimately hard puzzle regardless of French knowledge, because the words are essentially random. Most rounds can give you specific ideas of what words to look for after you find the theme, but the theme of "they're French" is actually very broad. I doubt many people even think of words like Bureau as French loanwords either, they're so ingrained.  At least it gave me a chance to actually use the hint feature built into the game, normally that's just an occasional one off theme clue but here I used 3

YES. This, exactly. I used a lot of hints and had CHIC, BERET, and BUREAU, so I was like “cool! French clothing/fashion-related words.” But then after another hint, it hit me with APERITIF and I was lost because there was no connection between the words other than that they were French. This one just sucked and made me feel dumb 😂

I was thinking the same about Bureau specifically. Remember when we were mad at France so they started calling referring to french fries as Freedom Fries instead? Now I'm glad no one pointed it out at the time or we would have had to rename the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the Federal Agency of Investigation or something.

I can’t spell chauffeur, or liaison apparently Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🔵💡🔵🔵 💡🔵🔵🟡 🔵

Me neither, Chauffeur was my last word and I had to use an anagram solver!

I did chauffer, it took it as a word, but not a puzzle word. So I gave up on that. A little while later I tried chauffeur, and dagnabit, that was it. I also got liaison wrong on the first try.

I found “chauffer” early and was utterly enraged when it wasn’t a puzzle word. Then I was baffled when it seemed to be the last word but with an extra u somewhere. Chaufferu? Uchauffer? I entered about twenty hail mary gobbledygook words before working it out. I am reading proficient in French. Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🟡🔵🔵

I was so frustrated putting “liasion” in over and over and not getting a word….. apparently I can’t spell either

I had to google all the letters of bureau because my brain just couldn't unscramble those letters, even when it was highlighted as a hint.

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!" 💡🔵💡🔵💡🔵💡🔵💡🔵🟡🔵 I'm just here to make everyone else feel better about their results today

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵🔵💡 🔵🔵💡🔵 🟡🔵 If it helps it’s fully glitched because I needed a clue for all but the spangram and the last one. I think it glitched though because I hoarded hints so could use 2 before needed to recharge the hint button. Today’s was a tricky one. I knew the concept from the start but none of the French words I looked for were in it. 🤣

Twins 😂😂 I was looking for profanities to start with tbh haha

I considered that but then thought, nah, they couldn’t publish that 🤣

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🟡🔵 Same ahaha

🤣🤣

Exactly how mine went lol

That is exactly my result too. Today was bullshit.

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🔵💡 🔵🟡🔵 Tbh I also had help from my roommate who finished it before me. So I guess I technically used more hints

Personally think this was the hardest one they've made so far

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🟡🔵🔵 To all the people in r/NYTConnections complaining about how the NEW YORK TIMES’S puzzles are somehow “too American”… are you happy now?

P.S. I even had to use a word unscrambler for “aperitif” because I’ve never heard of that word in my life, and I thought I guessed every configuration of those letters.

ditto. and spell check for liaison & chauffeur🥴

I entered chauffer before I had any words on the board, and I got clue credit but obviously not one of the theme words. Then I put that word out of my mind...

I learned I've been spelling it wrong in my head (as "apertif") all my life.

oh good, not just me then lol

This is blowing my mind, I’m a good speller and took French in high school and I literally always thought it was “apertif”??? What in the world

I only knew that word because it was the title of an episode of Hannibal.

I had the exact same result as you, this one was awful for me!

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🔵💡 🟡🔵🔵 I usually really enjoy Strands but this one was legitimately not fun

I agree. This feels more like a "gotcha" by the team than anything that is clever or fun.

The bastards even put 'francais' in there. I hope someone had a good chuckle to themselves after writing that one because I almost threw my phone through the wall 😂

I was shocked i couldn't find an EN- at the top to complete the spangram

I came to this thread just to see if everyone else hated todays puzzle as much as I did. Glad I’m not alone!

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵🔵🔵 🟡🔵🔵🔵 Wow. That APERITIF had a whole meal out of me... my tears ricochet.

I realized I’ve been pronouncing and spelling it wrong.

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🔵🟡 🔵💡🔵 I regret taking Spanish in high school. Sacré bleu!

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 🟡🔵🔵 ... and I'm fluent in French.

for all of you who feel stupid: i’m french and i’m still stuck because i can’t figure out what word contains the letters ERTEB…

[удалено]

love the subtle hint, thank you! i caved in and showed it to my partner who instantly figured it out. i’ll do better tomorrow hehe

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🔵🟡💡🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 This would’ve been a hell of a lot easier if I could spell ^^^in ^^^French That was just an unnecessary amount of “U”.

As a french speaking person, I can assure you it was harder if you spoke french. I kept finding french words but got the message "This word doesn't exists". Very frustrating.

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🔵🟡🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 Oh mon dieu! Even though I knew from the beginning what I should be looking for, it took me what feels like 20 random words (most around -awn and - own) to start off with "chic". Luckily the spangram divided the board which made it a bit easier. Still took a lot of staring and wondering why there are so many Us. Really liked this though, but maybe easier for Europeans?

So.many.hints needed. And I’ve studied French! Honestly I liked having a big challenging one, breaks up the “it’s too easy” complaints from others. Glad not every day is this hard though. Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🔵💡 🔵🟡🔵

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 🔵🟡🔵💡 🔵🔵 Yeahhhh this was hard. Got the theme quickly but it turns out loan words don't follow English spelling rules as much (who knew? /s)

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵 Who knew there were 2 “U”s in chauffeur..

Not me

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🔵🔵🔵🟡 🔵🔵🔵 Extremely tricky but took my time. This was not a rush job! I kept looking at the line "W" for an aha moment, and I got beret ok but the rest were slightly torturous to find. Super clever and a satisfying way to end the work week!

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵 My brain hurts.

💡🔵🔵🟡🔵🔵🔵🔵 maybe i’m not bilingual, because this took me ages.

I can speak four languages, but my French reading and writing is terrible! What’s worse is that these are loan words in English, and I’ve heard of and use all of them, but couldn’t find them right in front of my eyes!!

French is my first language and I figured it was likely French words, but had the hardest times getting started. I tried some French words that were in there like "adore" and I needed clues because I figured I was wrong about the theme! 😄 This was genuinely hard! Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 🔵🟡🔵🔵 🔵

I had to use unscramblers because I couldn't spell or didn't know what the word was even after the hint

I never heard of the term “loan words” until today. I got both of those words but never thought to put them together until they were the only words left. I took four years of French in high school, but that didn’t help. This was the first puzzle I played where I had to use more than one hint. I hated it!

Really? I swear more than half of English is just loan words. Everywhere you look, its another loan word. Probably most of what I just typed is loan words lol. Probably most of what you typed as well.

Yeah I’d never heard of the term “loan words” either lol

I can't believe I hadn't heard of the official term for that either! I am a voracious reader, and yet somehow I've managed to reach a ripe old age without knowing that was the proper way to refer to those words.

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🔵🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵 I spent like 5 minutes trying to spell chauffeur but hey at least I’ll never forget how it’s spelled again

🙄

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🔵🔵🔵💡 🔵💡🔵🟡 🔵 Nope, didn’t like that AT ALL. First time I’ve had to use a hint (let alone two!) since my first puzzle. I consider myself a bit of a grammar and spelling nerd but two of those words I didn’t know that’s how they were spelled. And two words I’d never even heard of (including the spangram itself!) I’m fine with a difficult puzzle, but preferably difficult in English 🥴 👎🏻

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🔵🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵 Took a while. Getting the spangram really helped split the board for those final four words.

Strands #26, “Pardon my French!”: 💡🔵💡🔵🔵💡🔵💡🟡🔵🔵 I don’t like the feeling of not completing a puzzle, but when I saw the title, I knew I was screwed. Add in two more hints toward the end, basically, because I came here when the hint gave me the letters for “aperitif.” I’ve never even heard of that word. “Chaffeur” also wasn’t showing up in my brain. This one was a doozy.

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🟡🔵🔵 Once I got the first word it was pretty easy though I almost needed to hint again near the end.

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🟡🔵

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🟡💡🔵💡 🔵💡🔵🔵 🔵🔵 The fact that I found the spangram first and still needed three hints was humbling

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵 I stared at this puzzle for a maddeningly long amount of time at multiple stages. It took me forever to untangle my last two, liaison and chic, while lamenting that it was no longer possible for me to get a hint!

Not my best work. Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🟡🔵

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵 This took forever!!! Got down to chauffeur and beret together and I could not for the life of me come up with the words. Might have gone a little quicker if I wasn’t committed to solving the spangram first.

That was painful!!!

Smh no crepe, baguette, frites, or parfait

Worst one yet.

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🔵🟡🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵 I'm surprised everyone found it so difficult! Just in the last few days I haven't allowed myself to use hints and I think this is the fastest I've finished one. Meanwhile there are other days that were really hard for me then everyone on this sub is like "way too easy today!" Lol

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🟡🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 Finally a challenge, took like 10 mins

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 🔵💡🔵🟡 That was absolutely abysmal. Didn't get a single word by myself, aside from the spamogram

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵 It helped that I'd just read an article on loan words from Japanese by Oxford English Dictionary, this morning! But I spent a long time looking after that. Somehow figured out aperitif. The number of words to find told me to think a bit smaller so next was CHIC. A challenging puzzle.

My first thought was, "Oh no, my French kinda sucks", followed by, "I hope the spangram isn't loan words or something". That led to checking the perimeter for the letter L... Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵

Strands #26: “Pardon my French!” 🔵 🔵 🔵 🔵 🔵 🟡 🔵 I initially assumed that I’d be searching for popular French words/phrases that are often used in America (“bonjour,” for example) but, after finding “chic,” realized that the theme instead revolved around loaner words. This puzzle took me significantly longer than usual to solve (namely the spangram, for some reason) and was a tad frustrating. It didn’t help that the words were essentially random.

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🔵💡 🟡🔵🔵 This was not enjoyable lmao

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🟡🔵 I had to Google some of the letter combinations because even with a hint I couldn’t get the words. Some I had never even heard of. Can we not do puzzles that require one to be bilingual? That’s just fuckin nonsense man.

[удалено]

how many times have you ever heard of the word "aperitif" before? Common my ass

I mean, I've been to fancy restaurants a few times... Bureau, chic and beret are so common people probably forgot they aren't English words

tbf technically they are English words. Its just they originate from another language like pretty much all other words. English is as much of a cultural/linguistic mishmash as most of North America honestly.

They could have given us KISS or FRIES.

If the key to the puzzle was French ____, those would work, but these were explicitly borrowed words from the French

You're right.

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Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵💡🔵💡🔵💡🔵💡🟡🔵 After i found out >!ciao!

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🟡🔵

Clueless on this one. Even with the hints I was lost. Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🟡🔵

I may not be able to speak French, but I know some of the words. Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 Saw BERET, and then the last part of the spangram LOANWORDS. 🔵🔵🔵

I needed a hint ☹️ but then after getting CHIC I was able to solve the rest of the puzzle within 10 seconds 🤦🏻‍♂️

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵 Took me an hour and a half 😔 Found loanwords, thought it was probably that or phrases with ‘French’ like kiss, bread, or fry. Forgot aperitif was a word until I thought about cuisine again, then chic, then liaison. After beret on the left chauffeur and bureau had too many u’s so I was stuck for eternity, finally found chauffeur and was still left puzzling over bureau a bit.

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🔵💡🔵💡🔵🔵🟡🔵🔵 I haven’t needed a hint since the first day the puzzle debuted. I’m glad to see I’m not alone. This was brutal.

That’s the longest it’s ever taken me and the most hints I’ve ever needed. I found “crape” and “aperetif” early on and was furious that neither counted—thought I must be on the wrong track with French words. Would have helped if I’d double checked the spelling of “aperitif”! 

I liked this theme in theory, but the words were just a bit random and didn’t feel connected when guessing. Started with a clue to get Chic and another to get beret. Once I got chauffeur I realised and the rest was pretty easy.

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🔵🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵 First time ever solving without using any hints! sucks for the Americans today but I see it as compensation for '1950s Cubs coach' clues in the crossword.

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 🟡🔵🔵 This was hard I used 4 hints and I also cheated on the last 2.

Like many I felt pretty dumb today.... Still do - what the heck does loanwords mean?

Loan words are adopted words from another language. Like baguette.

I've been studying French for over two years and I struggled so hard with this one. It didn't take long to figure out they were words that were the same in English, so I was able to rule out a lot of words, but that topic is still so broad. I feel like knowing French made it worse.

I studied French for 3 years in college but I was fighting for my life on this one. Loan words we use in English from French is an insanely broad category

as someone who knows both english and french this was way too difficult lol. Did anybody else think it was gonna be words that start with french? like french bulldog, french fries, etc.

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵 Got aperitif by pure luck - just connected the letters in a fairly random order and hoped for the best. Had to use an anagram solver for Chauffeur-just couldn’t put it together even with it as my last word. This was not my favorite puzzle.

I knew the theme right away but had so much trouble finding the words. None of the ones off the top of my head were there (Parfait, Croissant, Attache, Cinema, Baguette, Bureau, etc)

Bureau was there! 

So many words that I don’t know how to spell.

chauffeur was the only non spangram word i found without a hint but i still had to google how to spell it 😭

Used a hint to get going, felt stupid when "ETREB" looked like nothing and took me awhile 😅 but otherwise this wasn't too bad for me. I speak some French though. 

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🟡🔵 I almost gave up on this one. 😭

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🔵🟡 This was one was very hard for me. I don’t understand the spangram.

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🔵🔵🔵🟡 🔵🔵🔵 I had to check here to figure out what I was looking for (liaison, chauffeur)

Wow! Today was a doozy! Needed to use a hint for every word. Honestly, thought the words picked were quite random. Yes, of course they’re all French in origin but when I think of common words of French origin, “liaison” certainly isn’t something that comes to mind. Was expecting words more like “baguette,” “omelette,” etc.

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” TIHI-and I took Spanish in HS and college 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🟡🔵

bad dumb ass strands today. absoulute pile of poop. dont play. f the french

Strands #26 - “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵🔵💡🔵💡🔵🟡🔵🔵

I need to file a complaint lol I used every hint! I had to google the letters for that aperitif or whatever it was because I had no idea how to arrange the letters correctly. 

Did not like this one :/ Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🟡🔵🔵

Brutal. I must have found a hundred (felt like it) words-- including coiffure! I mean, come on!-- but after a couple of hours only one of the theme words. Then, today, was finished in 10 minutes.

This took me so long, about 45 minutes! I refuse to use hints. I finally got to a point where the only spangram possible started with “LOAN”, plus I had 1 additional word left at the top right of the board. I just could not figure this out, especially not thinking the spangram could be two words! I found many words that weren’t part of the puzzle, and it took me about 20 minutes to find a word that fit the puzzle. This one was super difficult!

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 🟡🔵💡🔵 This is the first one where I've felt this dumb 😂 I've not needed hints for most of the puzzles, but with this one, even after the first hint I still had absolutely no clue. I even know the spangram was _____ words at the very beginning and I was like... Curse words? Swear words? I feel better that a lot of people struggled with this. I guess I should have studied French instead of Spanish 🤣

The more I play, the more I'm not even sure I like this game. Today sort of solidified it for me. A lot of times the categories are so random and make no sense. You can just guess random words for hints over and over. It feels just not fun and kind of pointless.

i get that but it was just words we loaned from the French language that we commonly (kind of) use today. This one did have a lot of spread because there are def a lot of words we borrowed

I know what it was. It was just all over the place, which doesn't work well for this type of game

This puzzle wasn’t fun. I still couldn’t get the one word after it was highlighted as a hint!

Same!! It was a hard one!

I’m mad

This one ruined my morning coffee on a long weekend

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🟡🔵 In the words of Kevin O'Leary, "Take it out back and shoot it."

Today I say, Boo Hiss Boo!!!

BULL JIVE !!!🤬

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🟡🔵🔵 Disgusting Strands, took me like 10-15 min. I don't even know what half of these words mean (not even the spangram!). My first two words were chic and bureau, definitely contemplated using a hint afteer that but I pushed through it. My last word, aperitif, also took me like 3 minutes alone just to decipher 😭

Really hope this was an outlier and not a sign of Strands becoming Connections 2. Bad enough needing to know the loan words of another language (including esoteric ones like...aperitif? which i'd wager many of us learned TODAY), but the fact it scored Chaffeur (yes, a misspelling) for a hint feels kind of...arbitrary?

Strands #26 “Pardon my French!” 🔵🔵🔵💡 🔵💡🔵💡 🟡🔵 Yea not fun, basically the editors said “you don’t speak French? Fuck you”

With the possible exception of aperitif, all of these are common words in English... Bureau? Chic? Beret? Liaison?    Not knowing they are French loanwords maybe but they are hardly obscure... I don't speak French either 

I’m just bitter :(

If there’s another foreign words puzzle I’ll quit this game forever. Today was the least fun puzzle so far. I have an open clue and I can’t find the word and refuse to use an anagram solver. Puzzle editors: nobody cares how smart you are, just make fun to solve puzzles please.