How to play Letra Secreta

The rules

Every day there is a new secret word, the same for every player. You have 8 tries to guess it, and each guess must be a valid 5-letter word.

Words can contain repeated letters, and only the letters A–Z are used.

How to read the counters

After each guess three numbers appear. Green tells you how many letters are in the right spot; yellow, how many are in the word but somewhere else; and red, how many are not in the word at all.

The game never tells you which letters those are. That's the challenge: combine the information from several guesses to work out which letter each number refers to.

Example: if the secret word is BREAD and you guess BEARS, you will see 1 green (the B in first place), 3 yellow (E, A and R are in the word, but elsewhere) and 1 red (there is no S).

Mark your deductions

Tap any letter of your guesses to mark it: one tap paints it red (ruled out), two yellow (in the word, elsewhere) and three green (in place). Marks are just for you and help you keep track.

The keyboard dims the letters you have already used, so you can see at a glance what you haven't tried yet.

Know the second letter is O and the last one is N? Type _O__N with the _ key to visualize the pattern: a sketch with blank tiles never costs a try. Letters you mark green also appear faintly as a guide in the row you're typing.

Strategies to win

• Start with common words with five different letters, such as CRANE, SLATE or AUDIO: they cover frequent vowels and consonants.
• If a guess scores 0 green and 0 yellow, great! You can rule out all five letters at once.
• Change a single letter between two guesses to isolate which letter caused the change in the counters.
• Don't be shy with red marks: ruling letters out narrows things down faster than it seems.
• Remember letters can repeat: if you still have letters to place, consider words like SPOON or LEVEL.

Frequently asked questions