Before you start working on difficult riddles, you might find it interesting to start working with those common riddles which you know. You can get this common one online and in books and thus, practice them on a daily basis.
Most riddles tend to assume that, you already know the answer. The fun part of the riddle is that you can ask someone able something they don’t know that they know. Although the wording in the riddle might be tricky, you will be shocked that, the solution is something which is very familiar.
An example is: what goes on two feet at noon, four feet in the morning, and on three feet in the evening. The answer to this riddle is a person. When you are a baby,you crawl, which is represented by morning, when you are an adult, you walk upright, represented by noon, and when you are old, you walk on the three, as you have to use a cane, represented by evening.
From the above riddle, a person will automatically come into the picture because they have two feet, a chair or table doesn’t have two feet and thus, not the answer. The tricky part is the three feet, it is hard for animals to have three feet unless it gets an accident and lost it. If whatever it is started by using four feet and then moved to using two feet, it is hard for it to grow a third foot later. This means that the third feet are a tool, something which has been artificially added. What is the most intelligent animal in the world that utilizes tools? A human being of course.
Thinking about the actions in the riddle
In the above riddle, the verb in the enigma is “goes” meaning, it is something which is moving. So whatever the solution to the riddle, it has to be something which is capable of going to somewhere else. It could also mean that it is forced to go to wherever it is going due to the circumstances surrounding it and there is something which is making it move. But at this point, you don’t have to be quick to conclude. Leave your mind open for you to be able to solve the riddle.
Think about all the information in the riddle
The problem of time is also a problem when it comes to solving riddles. In the riddle above, you are given the time of the morning, noon and evening as the time at which the action of walking on four, two and three feet happened.
Due to the fact that the riddle begins in the morning and ends in the evening, it follows that the riddle is all about something that happens over a period of time from the time it began to the time it ended. You will have to avoid thinking over-literally when you are trying to analyze riddles. In most instances, they are figurative; the noon in the above riddle doesn’t literally mean 12 pm but it might be referring to something in the middle.
Go ahead and combine actions which are in the riddle with the solutions that you are thinking about
In the legs riddle, you will start with a list of several things in mind and start narrowing it down to the possible solutions by eliminating what you think that, it is not going to work. Tables and chairs, although they have four legs, they are not in a position to go anywhere on their own. And thus, you will need to eliminate them from your list. A human being has multiple feet, and as a human, you are in a position to add more feet using tools such as clutches and canes and you will be able to go to wherever you want with them. Even if you don’t know how the four, two and then three feet work, a person becomes a possible solution to your riddle.
Being able to solve riddles
In solving your riddles, you will need to determine the type of riddle which you are working on. There are riddles which require some skills in creative mathematics. A riddle such as There is a barrel of water, which is weighing 60 pounds, what will you have to add in order to make it weigh 30 pounds? The answer to the riddle is a hole. Although both conundrums and enigmas ask riddles in the form of a question, you will find that the enigmas tend to deal with difficult riddles to solve difficult problems. But when it comes to conundrums, the riddles are normally not difficult riddles, but ones to solve simple problems and thus, easier to solve in a way.
Always consider the possibilities
When you get a riddle which is challenging, you will have to go down and break it into different parts. While doing so, and considering the various possible solutions, it might seem clunky and awkward at the beginning, but with time, it will become easier and faster as you keep on practicing.
Judgment on the answer should be suspended
When reading or listening to a riddle, the most important tactic could be, not to ever jump into concluding what the answer might be. For you to be able to solve the riddle, you will have to make considerations for both the potential and the literal meanings of the words in the riddle.