This clever word riddle asks:
“What five-letter word sounds the same after you remove four letters?”
At first, it seems impossible. If you remove four letters from a five-letter word, only one letter remains. How could that single letter possibly sound the same as the original word?
The trick is to think about pronunciation rather than spelling.
The word “queue” contains five letters:
Q-U-E-U-E
Now remove the final four letters—U, E, U, and E—and you are left with just:
Q
The letter Q is pronounced “cue,” which sounds exactly the same as the word “queue.”
That is what makes this riddle so clever. The spelling changes dramatically, but the pronunciation stays the same.
Answer: QUEUE.
Did you figure it out before seeing the answer, or did this one make you think twice?
