Sanalouhos (Helsingin Sanomat)

About Sanalouhos (Helsingin Sanomat)

Sanalouhos is one of the daily games on HS Pelit, the games page of the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. HS introduced it when it renewed its daily games, and a new puzzle with its own date goes up every day at midnight.

The board is a grid of 30 letters. You tap neighbouring letters (up, down, sideways or diagonally) to spell a word and press Yhdistä to lock it in. Words can be three to ten letters long, and each letter can be used only once. The puzzle is solved when the words you have found use up every letter in the grid, and the game times how long you take.

Accepted words come from the Kotus list of modern Finnish; proper nouns, inflected forms, compound words and abbreviations are not allowed. If you are stuck, the hint button shows the first letters of the solution words, and Lopeta shows an example solution. Older puzzles can be played from the history button (on the web or in the HS app).

The game is credited to an HS team of Mikko Kivistö, Katariina Rahkola, Juhani Saarinen and Antti Hämäläinen. It suits Finnish speakers who enjoy word searches but want a puzzle where the whole grid has to fit together.

How to play Sanalouhos (Helsingin Sanomat)

1. Open Sanalouhos and press Pelaa.
2. Tap neighbouring letters (including diagonals) to spell a word of 3 to 10 letters.
3. Press Yhdistä to confirm the word; tap it again to undo.
4. Keep finding words until every letter in the grid is used once.
5. Use the hint button for first letters, or Lopeta to see an example solution.

Screenshots

Tips

• Start in the corners, where letters have the fewest neighbours and the fewest options.
• Avoid words that leave a single letter stranded; every letter must end up in a word.
• Think of base forms only, since inflected words and compounds are not accepted.

Questions