Abstract This chapter explores the use of Hints as a request strategy by learners. It addresses the question of regularities to be observed in the use of requestive Hints by language learners with various mother tongues at different proficiency levels, and the similarities or differences between them and native speakers. This analysis contributes both to our knowledge of learners’ pragmalinguistic behavior, as well as to our understanding of indirectness. The study was conducted within the framework of the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSARP) (cf. Blum-Kulka, House, & Kasper, 1989), and focuses on a comparison of Hebrew learners (hence-forth HL) with Hebrew native speakers (henceforth HN), examined in the context of a larger body of CCSARP data. Drawing on findings concerning the situational variation and the use of Hint substrategies by native speakers (Blum-Kulka, 1989; Weizman, 1989), I propose to examine whether the opacity inherent in Hints is exploited by learners as a strategy of communication, whether the impact of situational variations marks Hint selection by learners as it does with native speakers, and whether the use of Hint substrategies is comparable in the two groups.