What cannot talk, but answers when spoken to?

How to think about it

1. An answer that comes without talking is a repeated sound rather than a new one.
2. Think of places where your voice comes back to you: canyons, tunnels, empty halls, a stairwell in a parking garage.
3. What is that returning sound called?
4. An echo answers when you speak and never says anything of its own.

Why “an echo” is the answer

An echo is your own voice bouncing back from a cliff or wall, so it “answers” every time you speak and yet cannot start a conversation. The riddle plays on the idea of an answer that is really a reflection. Shouting in a canyon makes the answer obvious, and the delay before it comes back is the distance to the rock wall and back.

Common wrong answers

• A parrot. A parrot repeats what it hears, but parrots do talk, so the first part fails.
• A phone. A phone carries someone else’s voice, and that person can talk.