During the past two years, people are at their homes, crouching wearily and just passing their time on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. It has been found that during this pandemic era, many activities came into being. For example; outdoor games, sports, manual tasks, video games, riddles, memes, and many more. Riddles are being shared by people who are challenging each other to answer them.
A riddle is a question or a statement knowingly phrased to compelled originality in demonstrating its answer or definition. For instance; What begins with an “E” and only contains one letter? Name a work that begins with “C” and ends at the letter “N” and is associated with a king. There are a lot more on the platter. There are different types of riddles, some are for kids, some are funny, easy riddles, maths riddles, and the list goes on. However, a riddle puts the person to the test.
Well, now we have a new one circulating that is someone’s mother has 4 sons; it’s not explicitly new. The riddle has been found all over social media for some time and has rare resemblances and dissimilarities. Here is the most ordinary style and format of the riddle that is being shared everywhere and prevailing all over social media platforms.
Someone’s mother has 4 sons: north, west, and south. What is the name of the fourth son?
Take a minute and think about what could be its answer. The answer that seems correct switches to being wrong. Yeah, this is why we call it a riddle. It triggers your brain and allows you to refresh your memory, invest your brainpower, and think critically about all the possible solutions. It also happens that the accurate answer can flee even the best brains. So, there’s nothing to ponder over that why someone’s mother has 4 sons riddle has become so popular and why everyone is shrieking to know the answer.
The infuriating thing about this certain puzzle is that there are several different methods you can take to come out with very different answers. Let us find the obvious answer to this riddle. There are three possibilities.
- The first is East. Your brain tells so North, West, South, and East. (Most Common)
- The second is someone. Someone’s mom, so it’s the mom of an individual whose name is “Someone” (Seems logical, isn’t it?)
- The third is wh “What” is, in fact, the name of the fourth son. (Hard to reach but makes sense)
Now, let us have a factual look at these possibilities and find the correct and the best answer.
According to social media upshots, it is considered that its answer is East. If your sense is too obscure, “EAST!“ you aren’t alone. This is the blunder most people make because we’re so constrained to correlate the four cardinal directions. And the riddle is intentionally constructed to betray us this way. In General, people will first think that its answer should be east because it is one of the four directions I.e South, East, North, and West. But it is very important to investigate the details and should always read the question deliberately two to three times to recognize the answer.
Now let’s see the second possibility which says that Someone is the name of the fourth son. Someone could be the name of the fourth son. We can say that here the word someone is used as a pronoun. So, let’s select someone’s name to stand in for Someone. I’ll call him Ali. Now, instead of reading it as “Someone’s mother,” we have, “Ali’s mother has four sons: North, West, and South.” and the name of the fourth son is Ali surely.
Now coming to the third possibility, the name of the son is What. Let’s take a glance at that punctuation in the riddle itself. Yes, for once, we can go on reasonable punctuation in the social media world. The line which is the center of attention is, “What is the name of the fourth son.” It is not phrased as a question. It is phrased as a statement. “What is the name of the fourth son” with a full stop instead of a question mark. Notice that this line does not include a question mark? That one is a statement: someone’s mother has four sons answer may be East, Someone, or What.
So, briefly saying the answer to the riddle someone’s mother has 4 sons north west and south, maybe East according to a group of people but by having a comprehensive look at the question these types of questions are tricky. However, it’s important to note that a logical puzzle like this frequently aims to deceive you into following an apparent pattern. There’s a triviality that expects that the mother obeyed this naming pattern. Have you read the first sentence precisely?
The first sentence says, “Someone’s mother” which suggests that “Someone” is the name of one of the sons. Since the puzzle goes on to name three other, sons, you can infer that this is the name of the fourth is Someone. But again as it is a tricky question Someone couldn’t be his name because it is used as a noun, not as a proper noun. If you recall the second statement, it appears that it’s raising a question. That is the trick!!! And you caught it. Read likewise the whole statement from beginning to end. There are 2 statements:
- The first statement confides in the name of 3 sons.
- And the answer is in the second statement.
Because the second statement isn’t ending up with question marks, rather it’s ending with a full stop. It’s a simple sentence telling us the answer. So, the name of the 4th son is What.
