Questions tagged [english]
Puzzles that crucially depend on some feature of the English language or that only work in an English formulation.
10 questions from the last 365 days
6
votes
1
answer
65
views
What is a He shoots! He scores! word™?
This puzzle is inspired by the What is a Word™ and What is a Phrase™ series started by JLee and their spin-off What is a Number™ series.
If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a He shoots! ...
- 32.1k
8
votes
1
answer
238
views
What is a Pendulum word™?
This puzzle is inspired by the What is a Word™ and What is a Phrase™ series started by JLee and their spin-off What is a Number™ series.
If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Pendulum ...
- 32.1k
6
votes
3
answers
813
views
Alternating past tense and homophone
English has lots of weird and wonderful ways to change a verb to past tense, and lots of homophones. I've found a couple of nice chains, where I alternate the two!
For example, "blow" to &...
- 8,028
18
votes
3
answers
2k
views
The question contains the answer (literally)
How many ways to choose 3 letters from ONE? Answer: 1
How many ways to choose 1 letter from FOUR? Answer: 4
How many ways to choose 2 letters from SEVEN? Answer: 7
What is the largest n such ...
- 5,205
8
votes
2
answers
274
views
What was I to do?
When I first received my instruction I thought I may have to shoot someone, however I quickly realised I was simply to make a gesture. On explaining it to my friend, they asked what I was to do with ...
- 181
29
votes
1
answer
1k
views
The CXV sequence
This infinite sequence uses simple English and mathematics. Find the next term.
2, 2, 6, 4, 4, 2, 6, 6, 4, 2, 9, 8
- 74.5k
4
votes
4
answers
675
views
I saw some lines, or were they rhymes? Where am I?
While walking through a city, I noticed four curious things. Each one had a name that, in the local tongue, rhymed perfectly…
There was one that needed mended, right where the property ended.
There ...
- 181
34
votes
5
answers
6k
views
Is it possible to construct a sentence where any of they're / their / there could grammatically make sense?
In a recent chat conversation, the following sentence came up as one where either of "their" and "they're" could be substituted for each other without changing the meaning or ...
- 120k
21
votes
6
answers
3k
views
Valentines Confusion
Alice decides to write her mathematics-loving girlfriend some cute maths in her valentine's day card:
$$\frac{i!}{u!(i-u)!}$$
She gives the card to her girlfriend. After reading the equation, her ...
- 361
-5
votes
1
answer
289
views
What is the "fatal" Punctuation mark?
Note: I created this puzzle.
A certain punctuation mark, if you remove its letters that occurs exactly two times, would mean someone is in state of unconsciousness, and possibly will die.
What ...
- 1,935