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Funny riddles
If two is company and three is a crowd, what are four and five?
A proverb set up as a pattern. After two sayings, you expect a third saying, and the riddle gives you arithmetic instead.
If two is company and three is a crowd, what are four and five?
Hint: Just add.
Reveal the answer
Nine
Four plus five is nine.
How to solve it (spoilers)
How to think about it
- The first two lines quote the proverb “two is company, three is a crowd”.
- The pattern makes you search for a word to complete it: four is a party, four is a riot, and so on.
- The hint says to just add. Treat four and five as numbers.
- Four and five are nine.
Why “Nine” is the answer
Four plus five equals nine, and “what are four and five” is a plain arithmetic question once you stop looking for the next line of the proverb. The joke is a bait and switch: the saying primes you for wordplay, then the riddle asks for a sum. It is a small lesson in reading the question that is actually asked.
Common wrong answers
- A party. A natural extension of the proverb, but the riddle is not asking you to continue it.
- Twenty. Four times five is twenty; the riddle says “and”, which means add.
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