Weekly Challenge
Hatch: guess the hidden word
A free word-guess game in 15 languages, right in your browser, one week in four.
In your browser. No account needed.
Your place on the leaderboard, friends and streaks live in the app.
Open in QuackPathHatch is one of four games in the QuackPath Weekly Challenge. One game runs each week, and Hatch usually comes back every fourth week. In another game’s week, Play opens that week’s game instead.
How to play Hatch
- Type a word that fills every tile, then send it.
- After each guess the tiles turn. A purple tile with a dot: the letter is in the right spot. An orange ring: it is in the word, but somewhere else. A grey tile: it is not in the word. Each one looks different, so colour is never the only clue.
- Stuck after 3 tries? A hint shows the word’s meaning in your language, for a few points.
- In most languages every guess must be a real word: our server checks it against a word list for that language. Hindi, Japanese and Chinese have no word list, so any guess that fills the tiles counts there. The answer never reaches your browser.
- There is usually a new puzzle every day at 17:00 UTC, the same for everyone who plays that language.
- Solve it and you see the word written out in full, accents included. If you run out of tries in the browser, the word shows once the week ends.
Hatch in each language
The current settings for each puzzle language. Length is counted in tiles: letters in most languages, akshara in Hindi, kana in Japanese, jamo in Korean and characters in Chinese.
-
English
4 to 6 letters, 6 tries
Letters A to Z.
-
Russian
4 to 6 letters, 6 tries
ё counts as е.
-
Turkish
4 to 6 letters, 6 tries
ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş and ü are letters of their own, and dotted i and dotless ı are different letters.
-
Ukrainian
4 to 6 letters, 6 tries
є, і, ї and ґ are letters of their own.
-
Spanish
4 to 6 letters, 6 tries
Accents don’t count, but ñ is a letter of its own.
-
French
4 to 6 letters, 6 tries
Accents don’t count, ç counts as c, and œ and æ count as oe and ae.
-
German
4 to 6 letters, 6 tries
ä, ö and ü are letters of their own; ß counts as ss, and no answer contains it.
-
Italian
4 to 6 letters, 6 tries
Accents don’t count.
-
Portuguese
4 to 6 letters, 6 tries
Accents don’t count, and ç counts as c.
-
Polish
4 to 6 letters, 6 tries
ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź and ż are letters of their own.
-
Japanese
4 kana, 10 tries
Katakana counts as hiragana, while small kana and dakuten matter. Marks also show when the answer’s kana is in the same row or column of the kana chart. No word list: any kana that fill the tiles make a guess.
-
Korean
5 to 6 jamo, 6 tries
Typed in jamo: compound vowels and final consonants split the way a 2-beolsik keyboard types them (ㅘ = ㅗ + ㅏ).
-
Chinese
2 characters, 8 tries
Simplified characters, picked from a tray under the grid. Pinyin colours show the initial, the final and the tone. No word list: any characters from the tray make a guess.
-
Arabic
4 to 5 letters, 8 tries
Right to left. Harakat don’t count, and alef with hamza, madda or wasla counts as plain alef.
-
Hindi
3 to 4 akshara, 6 tries
You pick each akshara’s base letter; the vowel signs and the rest of a conjunct are filled in for you. No word list: any guess that fills the tiles counts.
Why it helps when you learn a language
Hatch answers come from QuackPath’s own learner vocabulary, its courses and word practice; names, grammar words and conjugated forms are left out. Keep the menus in your own language and play the puzzle in the one you are learning: the hint shows the meaning in your language, and a solved word shows its full spelling. No answer comes back within 52 weeks in the same language.
Questions about Hatch
Is Hatch free?
Yes. Hatch plays free in your browser with no account and no download. To join the weekly leaderboard and win prizes, get the QuackPath app, which is free to download.
How many tries do I get?
Currently 6 in most languages, 8 in Chinese and Arabic, and 10 in Japanese. After 3 tries, a hint can show the word’s meaning for a few points.
Do accents count?
Not in Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese: accents are ignored while you guess, and ñ stays a letter of its own in Spanish. In German, Polish, Turkish and Ukrainian, letters such as ä, ą, ç, ı and ї are letters of their own. A solved word is shown with its true spelling.