Pronunciation Puzzles
The following 2 puzzles rely on misleading phrasing of the questions. Read them aloud to your friends and let them ponder upon them.
- What has 4 letters, sometimes 9, and never 5
- One night a king and a queen stayed in a hotel. On the next day, three people checked out. Who was the third person?
- There are 30 cows and 28 chickens. How many didn’t?
- Pronounce the following words: T-W-A, T-W-E, T-W-I, T-W-O
- As I was walking across the London Bridge, I met a man.
He tipped his hat, and drew his cane.
In this riddle, I said his name. What is it?
The first puzzle is not a question. It is a statement, saying that the word “what” has 4 letters, the word “sometimes” has 9 letters, and the word “never” has 5 letters. There is nothing to solve, so the puzzle is figuring that out!
The second puzzle reads as “One knight, a king, and a queen stayed in a hotel.” Thus, the third person was the knight.
The third puzzle reads as “There are 30 cows and 20 ate chickens. How many didn’t?” Thus, the answer is that 10 cows didn’t eat chickens.
The fourth question often confuses people and they pronounce TWO as [twou] instead of [tuː].
The fifth riddle actually says: “He tipped his hat, ‘Andrew Hiscane'”. Thus, the name of the man is Andrew Hiscane.
