This Tricky Riddle Left Thousands Scratching Their Heads, Can You Solve It? – News18

In the age of social media, when every human is engaged in scrolling their feeds and watching viral videos, riddles are also a popular way to engage and entertain online communities. Riddles can be a great way to pass the time, as they are fun, challenging, and a real head-scratcher until the answer staring you in the face finally hits you. The internet is filled with all types of riddles that can make you spend hours pondering over the clues and solving problems. Those little brain teasers make you feel dumb when you can’t get them, and then angry when someone finally tells you the obvious answer.

Similarly, a riddle posted on X (Formerly Twitter) has people all around the internet scratching their heads and making some feel stupid after knowing the answer. The puzzle was posted by an X user named No Context Humans. The picture shows a blackboard kept outside eateries with a puzzle that reads, “What has 4 letters, sometimes 9 letters, but never has 5 letters.”

Have a look at this brain teaser:

Within a day, the post went crazy viral and garnered close to 31 million views so far. Unsurprisingly, the numbers are still increasing. With likes and views, the post has also accumulated a plethora of comments from social media users. A few were quick to come up with the answer, while there were some who couldn’t solve the puzzle and were left baffled.

An X user explained, “The riddle is playing with words. It’s not asking about a word but instead stating facts about the words: ‘What’ has 4 letters. ‘Sometimes’ has 9 letters. But the word ‘never’ has 5 letters.”

“Someone, PLEASE tell me. I know the answer will be obvious…but I won’t work it out,” asked another X user.

Another lauded, “This is a clever play of words: ‘What’ has 4 letters. ‘Sometimes’ has 9 letters. And the word ‘never’ has 5 letters. So, it’s not a question, but a statement!”

To everyone’s surprise, an individual also asked ChatGPT and shared the answer from the AI chatbot. “ChatGPT: What has 4 letters, sometimes 9 letters, but never 5 letters. The answer isn’t a word, but rather a statement of fact. The word ‘what’ has 4 letters, ‘sometimes’ has 9 letters, and ‘never’ has 5 letters.”

“The riddle is phrased to mislead the reader into thinking they should be searching for a word that meets all the conditions, but it’s actually just stating the number of letters in each word,” it added.

Engaging in such logical problems helps to improve cognitive function, problem-solving skills, and critical thinking of a person. It not only keeps the brain active but also aids in the development of analytical skills, which can be useful in a variety of endeavours, including professional and personal life.

Would you like to solve more such puzzles?