Note : Make sure to complete today’s NYT Connections before reading further! We’ll be getting into spoilers for today’s game pretty quickly. If you need some help to complete the grid, you can find my NYT Connections hints and answers column for today via my author page .

Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to my deeper dive into today’s Connections answers. The idea behind this is to help clear things up for anyone who isn’t sure how today’s groups fit together.

If I’ve missed any red herrings or misunderstood something, let me know via email or on Discord . I don’t typically look at X or check the comments here.

I’m going to assume that you’ve already beaten today’s game. We’re going straight into spoiler territory here. So, consider this your one and only warning .

Here are today’s NYT Connections answers explained (and any red herrings I spot) for Friday, June 19:

Today’s NYT Connections Answers Explained

Connections – Yellow Group

FEATURED | Frase By Forbes ™

Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase

🟨 umami-rich foods (MISO PASTE, PARMESAN, SOY SAUCE, VEGEMITE)

Straightforward enough. These are all full of umami, or savoriness, one of the five basic tastes.

Connections – Green Group

🟩 things a beginner might learn on the piano (CHOPSTICKS, FÜR ELISE, HEART AND SOUL, THE ENTERTAINER)

Again, not much explaining required here, at least on the surface. However, here are tutorials for all four pieces (play some music! It’s fun!):

It might take a new pianist a little while to work up from those pieces to this one:

🟦 starting with magazines (FORTUNE COOKIE, PEOPLE PERSON, SPINDERELLA, TIME MACHINE)

  • FORTUNE COOKIE > Fortune
  • PEOPLE PERSON > People
  • SPINDERELLA > Spin
  • TIME MACHINE > Time

Connections – Purple Group

🟪 ending in synonyms for "aggregate" (COINCIDENTALLY, DIM SUM, TEETOTAL, VISCOUNT)

  • COINCIDENTALLY > tally
  • DIM SUM > sum
  • TEETOTAL > total
  • VISCOUNT > count

Connections – Red Herrings

DIM SUM, FORTUNE COOKIE, SOY SAUCE and CHOPSTICKS are aspects of Chinese cuisine.

If you’d like to chat about today’s game of Connections and just about anything else with me and a very lovely group of people, you can do just that in our Discord community . We’d love for you to hang out with us.

I’ll be back with another set of NYT Connections hints and answers on Monday, as well as another edition of this one, all going well. You’ll be able to find both of those on my Forbes author page when the time comes (following me there helps me out too!). As for the weekend editions of my NYT Connections hints and answers column, I’m currently doing that via my newsletter, Pastimes .