English Basics

Riddles: Volume 2

Grammar 5 min Article Advanced

Vocabulary - 4 English Riddles

[speaker]

If you saw our last edition of Riddles in English, you know that riddles can be a useful way to improve your language skills.

Before we look at a few more riddles, let’s learn a bit about their history!

History of Riddles

The word riddle comes from Old English and means to guess.

But the first known riddles were actually in a language called Sumerian, which was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia.

Here’s one of the first riddles ever recorded: There is a house. You enter it blind and come out seeing. What is it?

A school.

Here, the word “blind” describes someone who doesn’t have knowledge; “seeing” describes a person who has learned something.

1. How many months have 28 days?

2. Why don’t lobsters share?

3. Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If you eat it you will die. What is it?

4. Which word contains 26 letters but only 3 syllables?

So, how did you do? Do you think you solved the riddles correctly? Check your answers below!

1. all of them
A common incorrect guess for this one is “February.” But you have to pay attention to the wording. If the question was “How many months have only 28 days?” then February would be correct. But in reality, all of the months have (at least) 28 days.

2. because they’re shellfish
This riddle requires you to think of two words that sound very similar. Someone who doesn’t like to share is selfish. A lobster is a type of sea animal with a shell called shellfish. Using words in this way is sometimes called a play on words or a pun.

3. nothing
Poor people have nothing. Rich people need nothing (they don’t need anything). If you eat nothing, you’ll die.

4. alphabet
Wait a minute, here! The word “alphabet” is only spelled with 8 letters, not 26! However, we’re not talking about the spelling of a word here; we’re talking about the actual English alphabet, which contains 26 letters (A to Z)!