Rules for Cryptic Clues
The following are rules which should be followed by all good clues. Understanding them will help you in your solving, but remember all compilers break the rules once in a while. However if you find one who consistently breaks them, I suggest you try a different crossword.
(Sometimes, seemingly bad clues are the results of misprints, but you will come to be able to recognise them. Misprints are less frequent these days.)
1. The clue as a statement (theSurface) should have a meaning, and internal consistency. It should immediately conjure up a picture. If the compiler is good, that picture will be far from the answer. To me, that is the real enjoyment of cryptics - taking something which appears to say one thing, and finding its alternate meaning. If the clue itself doesn’t really make sense, all the enjoyment goes (and I am pretty sure the compiler has little skill).
2. The Definition should indicate the correct part of speech, ie verb, noun, adverb, adjective, etc. And if a verb, the correct tense; if a noun, whether it is singular or plural. It may be disguised, but you should be able to find the correct correlation. Tenses particularly, can be prone to misprints. Also many words in English can be used as verbs and nouns. Often the sense of the clue will imply one when the other is actually needed for the answer.
3. Every word of the clue should be required for solving. With a good compiler, if you think you’ve solved a clue by ignoring some words then you are wrong.
The one allowable exception to this rule is connections. There may be none, ie the parts are just side by side, or there may be a connecting word or phrase. For example:
1 and 1 {pause} 2 - imagine the {pause} printed as a blank
1 and 1: 2
1 plus 1 = 2
1 and 1 is 2
1 and 1 makes 2
1 and 1 adds up to 2
1 when added to 1 gives a total of 2
Connecting words may be just that (and therefore ignorable), or they may also be part of the Wordplay.
One thing to be aware of: as above, clues are usually phrased in terms of the Wordplay giving the answer (or answer resulting from Wordplay). But it is not unusual to see the reverse implication, eg. 2 comes from 1 plus 1.
Too many clues with superfluous words at the end, is a sign of a mediocre compiler.
Just a word about whole clue overlap. This has its own designation: &lit. It is probably the aim of every good compiler, but is achieved seldom because it is so difficult to do well. In the early days it was distinguished by an ‘!’ at the end. These days people use the ‘!’ if they think the clue is a little out of the ordinary.
Here’s a small example (not great but OK):
‘Party nibbles (6)’.
Depending on the compiler, ‘nibbles’ might be followed by ‘, say’, an ‘!’, a ‘?’, ‘!?’, or ‘?!’. Taking all of the clue as the Wordplay we can get party=do, nibbles=nuts giving us donuts = party nibbles (if you like that sort of party).
Another taken from The Times:
‘Ultimately asocial individual, right? (5)’ for ‘loner’. If you can’t work it out now, come back when you have read the section on types of clues.
Because many of these clues had a pun as the Definition, this type of clue has developed into the ‘just a pun clue’ - or a Cryptic Definition. Many people like them, but I think they are just a cop-out. The compilers say that the pun is both the Definition and the Wordplay, which saves them having to think. This leaves the solver having to ‘get’ the pun without any way to corroborate it apart from ‘it fits in’. Often found in ‘Sunday’ crosswords.