This word riddle asks: How many letters are in “the alphabet”? At first, many people think of the 26 letters from A to Z. But the question is asking how many letters are in the phrase “the alphabet,” not how many letters exist in the alphabet. Count the letters in the words. “The” has 3 letters and “alphabet” has 8 letters. Together, that makes 11 letters. So the answer is 11. The quotation marks are the clue because they direct your attention to the exact words rather than the entire English alphabet. It is a simple language trick that catches people who answer too quickly. Riddles like this are all about reading the wording carefully instead of jumping to the most familiar interpretation.
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