NYT Crossword Answers for Oct. 16, 2024

Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues

WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — Although it exposes me as a card-carrying Canadian, the theme of today’s puzzle compels me to share that, from kindergarten through the 12th grade — or Grade 12, as it is called there — I attended a French school. In order to develop bilingualism, we were allowed to speak only French in the hallways, and scolded whenever we didn’t.

Rather than contributing to fluency, this led most of us to adopt the defiant patois known in French as Franglais (or Frenglish, in English), a tangle of two languages that was as disappointing to all of our French-speaking teachers as it was amusing to us. And I’d like to think this old habit has finally demonstrated its usefulness by helping me to solve today’s crossword, constructed by Hanh Huynh.

If your solve sparks any memories of forays into second and third languages, I’d love to hear about them in the comments section. Otherwise, allons-y.

Today’s Theme

Mr. Huynh has enrolled us in BEGINNER SPANISH, the [Introductory foreign language class suggested by this puzzle’s theme] (39A). How do we know it’s for beginners? Because although all of today’s themed entries begin in Spanish, they revert to English halfway through. Ah, well — the point is that we tried.

The clue at 17-Across, for example, is [Three tickets]. Your crossings most likely led you to discover an odd answer, TRESPASSES, but in the sense intended by the theme, it’s TRES PASSES. Here’s another, at 26-Across: [With money] is CON/TENDER.

Generally, crossword themes use terms that can exist independently of the theme, even if they don’t directly solve their clues. LOCOMOTIVE (60A) isn’t a [Crazy reason], but it is a word. The exceptions to this convention are rebus puzzles, which tend to appear on Thursdays; I can’t vouch for the labyrinthine language therein.