I am a word of three letters. Add two more and fewer there will be. What word am I?

How to think about it

1. Adding letters to a word makes it longer, so “fewer there will be” must describe the new word’s meaning, not its size.
2. Look for a three-letter word that becomes a comparative when you add two letters.
3. Add “er” to the small word that means “not many”.
4. F-e-w plus e-r spells fewer.

Why “Few” is the answer

The word “few” has three letters, and adding “er” turns it into “fewer”, so the longer word literally means that there are fewer. The riddle uses the same trick as “short” becoming “shorter”: the word grows while its meaning shrinks. Spelling it out makes the pun obvious, and the old-fashioned phrasing “fewer there will be” is a clue that the riddle is older than it looks.

Common wrong answers

• Les. Not a standard English word; the riddle wants “few”, which becomes “fewer”.
• Low. Adding “er” gives lower, which is about height rather than quantity.