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Anew word riddle is trending on social media that asks if Penny has five children, what the fifth child’s name is. The riddle’s trending on sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Read on to learn more about the riddle and the riddle’s answer.
You’ll typically see the riddle in someone’s status and it often reads like this:
Riddle me this….
Penny has 5 children.
The 1st kid is named January.
2nd kid is February.
Her 3rd is called March.
4th is April.
What is the name of the 5th.
Are you ready for the answer to the riddle?
The Answer to the Riddle Is Below
So what is Penny’s fifth child’s name?
The answer is “What.” Penny’s fifth child’s name is “What.”
Yes, although you’d expect the child’s name to be “May,” the answer to the fifth child’s name is actually hidden within the riddle itself. You see, the riddle isn’t asking a question at all. It’s simply listing the names of Penny’s children. Her first four kids are January, February, March, and April. And then “What is the name of the fifth child.”
Sometimes the riddle will end with the advice to “read carefully.” This is because the last sentence doesn’t end with a question mark but with a period, indicating that it’s a statement and not a question. It’s always a good idea to pay close attention to punctuation when you’re answering a riddle.
The responses to the riddle can also be funny because when people answer, it still looks like they’re just asking the question again, which can confuse other people who read the riddle and try to respond.
There are other variations to this riddle. Some of them are like this:
Penny’s mom has five kids. The First one is named January, the second one February. the third one March, the fourth one April, what is the fifth one’s name?
In that version, which ends with a question mark, the fifth child’s name would be Penny.
Another version reads like this:
A cat had three kittens: January, March and May. What was the mother’s name.
This version is just like the original. In this case, they’re asking about the mother rather than the kitten, but the answer is the same. What is the mother’s name.
The key hinges on whether the riddle ends with a period or a question mark. If it ends with a question mark, then you should start it like the second riddle in this story: “Penny’s mom has five kids” and let the answer be “Penny.” If it ends without a question mark, then it’s a simple riddle where “What” is the answer.
This is just one of many riddles that are circulating on sites like Facebook and Instagram during the coronavirus pandemic. If you’ve seen the “How Many Ducks Do You See?” riddle and were stumped, check out Heavy’s explanation here. If you ran into the “I Met a Man on London Bridge” riddle and have no idea what the man’s name is, you can find the answer in Heavy’s story here. The answer to the “You Enter a Bedroom” riddle is here, and the answer to the “Can You Open the Lock Using These Clues?” riddle is here.
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