Puzzling Stack Exchange
Puzzling Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [english]

Puzzles that crucially depend on some feature of the English language or that only work in an English formulation.

Puzzles that crucially depend on some feature of the English language or that only work in an English formulation.

General English questions are off-topic but can be asked on our sister sites English Language & Usage Stack Exchange or English Language Learners Stack Exchange (depending on the level).

421 questions
23
votes
1 answer

A confusing sign

This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #12: mobile-friendly puzzles. I saw this posted on a sign, but couldn’t make sense of it. What was it trying to say? By ridge loses own aster or routing trough md un. Paring imitations, ties oline…
Amoz
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11
votes
3 answers

Double Speak Clearing House - More phrases that need rewording

When I was making this puzzle, I actually made far more Double Speak puzzles than I wound up combining into the resulting metapuzzle. I'd rather they not go to waste, so here they are. As with the previous set, each of these phrases can be reworded…
qwertyu63
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9
votes
2 answers

Single Speak - Twice the same word

I've checked out the Double Speak puzzle and really liked it, and hoped to get more of it, which I did. My thirst has not been sated though. Because of that, I've devised a collection of 20 riddles that need some rewording. The correct answers…
HugoBDesigner
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8
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1 answer

On what basis have I split the alphabet into 4 sets?

I have split the 26 letters of the alphabet into 4 sets. Here they are: Set 1: $F G J L N P Q R S Z$ Set 2: $A M T U V W Y$ Set 3: $B C D E K$ Set 4: $H I O X$ Can you determine on what basis have I split them?
Spikatrix
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2
votes
4 answers

Maximum number of the same word in an English language sequence (punctuation allowed)

An old school boy riddle is how to to have 5 x "and" in sequence and yet still make grammatical sense. The answer is that a man saw a sign advertising Dogs and Cats for sale. He commented that the sign was badly laid out because there was too…
Peter Bentley
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2
votes
2 answers

Find the "odd one out" and explain why

i. I'm not used to the noise yet. ii. They used to work in a circus. iii. Didn't there use to be a shop there? iv. I never used to smoke. v. It didn't use to be so dirty.
AlexandraD
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1
vote
2 answers

Five-letter English word that contains only two distinct letters

Is there any 5-letter English word that uses only 2 distinct letters?
user4745
1
vote
2 answers

Famous quotes transcribed wrong

Someone was listening to a bunch of famous quotes, but they wrote them down wrong! Figure out which ones they were listening to! They may not have written the whole quote. (not sure if the english tag is correct, feel free to change it). Toby…
Richard Roe
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1
vote
2 answers

Think of a number beginning with

A while ago, I was watching a video about teaching children to count when these challenges suddenly occurred to me. Note that they may be easy in other languages (eg. in German you have: eins, zwei, drei which will solve the last one) so I’m…
Shuri2060
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0
votes
3 answers

highest number of unique links in a chain of words

What sequence of words in the OED linked pairwise by spelling or pronunciation has the highest number of unique links? The spelling 'read' can be pronounced at least two ways, as in "Yesterday I read a paragraph.", and "Today I will read a…
Jeremy Argent
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votes
2 answers

Confusing, Seemingly-Impossible, yet Correct sentence

What does this mean? "The girl that a man that a dog that a complex that a landlord that a friend that a cat plays with helps owns houses loved seen plays piano." Can you make any sense out of this?
warspyking
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votes
1 answer

"Place a single square on the soil, place a firs..."

Place a single piece of square on the soil, place a first stick vertically on above of a single piece of square, place a second stick horizontally on above of the first stick, What symbol did you get?
Culoboyogendeng
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-5
votes
3 answers

Line with all alphabets?

What is your smallest line which consists of all the letters at least once? (which all alphabets(a-z) are used). Please write the meaningful line.
Ankit Modi
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votes
1 answer

Bob and Steve find an ambiguous sentence - but HOW ambiguous?

Bob is mentoring Steve at a new job, and they are working their way through some poorly written instructions to install an update for some critical software. Things are going okay up until they find this sentence: YOU CANNOT INSTALL THIS UPDATE ON A…
Kingrames
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