Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 4: Understand the principle of solving riddles
• Part 2 of 4: Hone Your Analytical Skills
• Part 3 of 4: Practice familiar riddles
• Part 4 of 4: Guessing riddles
• Tips

Riddles help keep your brain toned and strengthen your thought processes. Practicing puzzles daily will help you think more easily, improve your memory and cognitive abilities. Even tricky riddles can be solved by following a few simple methods.

Steps

Part 1 of 4: Understand the principle of solving riddles

1. 1 Explore the main types of riddles. There are two main types of riddles: riddles and puzzles. Usually, both types are asked during a dialogue by one of the interlocutors, and the second is looking for an answer to the puzzle (or waiting for the first to say it).
   • In riddles, you may notice a question asked using metaphors, allegories or associations, which will require creativity and experience to answer. For example, let us cite one of the American riddles: “At sunrise you see a flower garden, and at sunset - an empty garden. What is it?" (Answer: sky).
   • The puzzle has a play on words in the question, answer, or both. For example, let's take one of the American riddles: "What flowers can be found between the nose and chin?" (Answer: lips)
2. 2 Read the rules for building puzzles. Most of the riddles are made up of very famous subjects. Difficulties arise when describing these items. The puzzle may contain a number of associations to keep you on track.
   • For example, the popular riddle from J.R.R.Tolkien's book The hobbit sounds like this: "There are thirty white horses on the red hills, / They gnaw the bit, / Then they beat with their hooves, / Then, having closed, they will freeze." This riddle uses well-known concepts (horses, hills) in order to figuratively express the answer (in this case, "teeth").
3. 3 Note that riddles can be tricky. Associations that seem logical at first glance can be confusing. The correct answer may be so obvious that you miss it right away.
   • Distraction is a standard form of misdirection through association, as in this American riddle: “A green man lives in a green house. A blue man lives in a blue house. A red man lives in the red house. Who lives in the White House? " Your immediate response is likely to be the "white man," but the White House is here to confuse you - the President of the United States lives in the White House!
   • Traditional African riddle: "How do you eat an elephant?" (Answer: piece by piece). This riddle is a good example of an answer that is hidden, and at the same time in the palm of your hand.
   • Other "riddles" cannot be considered true riddles at all. For example, this traditional Jewish riddle: "What is hanging on the wall, green, damp and whistling?" The answer is herring, as you can hang the herring on the wall and paint it green. If the herring has been dyed recently, it is wet. The funny thing is that it doesn't actually whistle - there is initially no correct answer here.

Part 2 of 4: Hone Your Analytical Skills

1. 1 Solve puzzles daily. When solving puzzles, you will have to combine the information you already know with new information from the puzzle. Like riddles, puzzles will force you to use existing knowledge and contextual clues to find an original, sometimes tricky answer. Puzzles can help you distinguish between layouts and their order.
   • When solving puzzle games such as Tetris, as well as traditional mosaic puzzles, you will have to look at the situation from several angles in order to find the optimal solution. This method works just as well for solving riddles.
   • Certain types of puzzles and games are best for developing certain skills.So, if you solve a lot of crosswords, chances are you will learn to solve them very well, but you are unlikely to be able to achieve the same success in other areas. It is useful to play different games, and not dwell on just one.
2. 2 Alternate educational games regularly. The more often you do the same task, the less effort your brain will make to complete it. Regular alternation of games will keep your brain from relaxing.
3. 3 Try to read something difficult and then summarize. For example, you might read complex newspaper material and then write a short summary that conveys the whole point in a few key phrases. The researchers say this will help you get the "big picture" as well as notice the details - a skill that will also come in handy when guessing riddles.
   • Rephrasing content in your own words can also help you develop linguistic flexibility and improve memory. It’s easier to remember the meaning when you’ve spent a little time retelling it, since the brain had to work to organize it for better understanding.

Part 3 of 4: Practice familiar riddles

1. 1 Analyze several well-known mysteries. It can be helpful to start with those riddles that you already know the answer to. On the Internet and in books, you will find many collections of riddles that you can use for practice.
2. 2 Start from the answer and try to understand the principle of making the riddle. The riddle assumes that the answer is already known in advance; One of the funniest things about the riddle is that you confuse the person by asking him about what he thinks he doesn't know. While there can sometimes be a catch in the wording, the answer is usually pretty simple.
   • For example, the famous riddle in the play by Sophocles King Oedipus: "Who walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?" The answer is “human”: a baby crawls on all fours (in the morning), in adulthood walks on two legs (day), and he has to walk with a stick in old age (evening).
3. 3 First, break the puzzle into several parts. In the riddle of Oedipus, one can start with the "legs", as they are mentioned several times in the riddle. Who has four legs? Who has two legs? Who has three legs?
   • Who can have four legs? Many animals have four legs, so this might be a possible answer. Tables and chairs also have four legs and are common items too, so take note of this.
   • Who has two legs? Obviously in humans, since humans are known to have two legs. Chairs and tables cannot have two legs, so they are excluded from possible answers.
   • Who has three legs? This is a trick question. Usually animals cannot have three legs, unless, of course, they have lost one of them. However, if the animal had four legs, then it became two, then it will not be able to grow a third. This means that the third leg can be some kind of adaptation: that which has been added.
   • Who is using the fixtures? The person is the most appropriate answer, so you may have achieved your goal.
4. 4 Think about the action in the puzzle. There is only one verb in this riddle - "walks." So we know that whatever the answer is, this item is capable of going somewhere.
   • This is maybe mean that he is going somewhere because someone sets him in motion (like a car), so do not make hasty decisions. Remaining receptive is key to solving riddles.
5. 5 Study other information regarding the puzzle. Another point in the Oedipus puzzle is the problem with time. The riddle lists "morning", "afternoon" and "evening" as the time of the action.
   • Since the riddle starts in the morning and ends in the evening, it seems that it is asking how something starts and ends.
   • Try to think big when solving riddles.They almost always use a figurative meaning; "Day" may not mean "12 noon", but the "middle" of something.
6. 6 Link the actions in the puzzle to the possible answers. Now you can start narrowing down the possible answers to the exclusion of those that will definitely not fit.
   • Chairs and tables cannot "walk" on their legs. That is, this is hardly the correct answer.
   • A person has several limbs, he can "add" one more to himself, using such devices as sticks and crutches, and can "go" somewhere on his feet. Even if you don't quite understand the relationship between feet and time, most likely “human” is the correct answer.

Part 4 of 4: Guessing riddles

1. 1 Determine what kind of puzzle you come across. Some puzzles require creative mathematical skills, for example, for this puzzle: “A barrel of water weighs 25 kilograms. What needs to be added to make it weigh 15 kilograms? " (Answer: a hole).
   • Despite the fact that riddles and puzzles are often in the form of a question, riddles are more often intricate, and in puzzles a simple question is asked.
2. 2 Assess the possibilities. A complex riddle will be easier to guess by breaking it into parts, as described in the second paragraph.
   • Although solving riddles piece by piece or pondering over several possible solutions may seem inconvenient or difficult at first glance, over time you will do it much faster and without much effort.
3. 3 Weigh your answer. One of the safest methods to use when listening to or reading a riddle is not to jump to conclusions. In order to solve the riddle, you should consider both the literal and the hidden meaning of the words.
   • For example, try to solve this riddle: "The more it dries, the wetter it gets?" (Answer: towel). Despite the fact that at first glance, the actions are incompatible, the towel dries things and becomes wet itself in the process.
4. 4 Think big when thinking about your answers. Try to think of different ways to interpret the clues in the puzzle. In riddles, metaphors are often found - words with a literal meaning to express figurative objects.
   • For example, try to solve this riddle: "He has golden hair, but is he standing in the corner?" The answer is a broom: "golden hair" is the yellow straw from which brooms are usually made, and it "stands" in the corner when not in use.
5. 5 Note that sometimes riddles can be tricky. In particular, this applies to riddles, the answer to which seems inappropriate or ambiguous. The possibility of several answers cheers up both interlocutors.
   • The goal of trick riddles is to get the most "obvious" (and usually the most ambiguous) answer out of you. For example, this riddle can be answered in different ways: "Which seven-letter word ending in E means‘ contact ’?” To give the “correct” answer (“communication”), you should not rely on your own assumptions, but think more broadly.

Tips

• Read more riddles. The better you become familiar with the riddles in general, the better you will become at guessing them.
• Be patient with yourself. Riddles are complex in nature. If you are confused by a difficult puzzle, don't think that you are illogical or stupid.
• Come up with your own riddles! Composing your riddles will help you understand their principle, and at the same time you will learn how to break them into pieces in order to solve.