ESL Riddles

Lesson recommendation: The Bridge Riddle: Can You Solve It?

Riddles are puzzles or questions that require thought and cleverness to solve. They often involve word play, metaphors, and a deep understanding of the language, making them an excellent tool for language learning. Riddles challenge the mind and provoke creative thinking, making them a fun and engaging way to practice English at various levels of proficiency.

A2 Level Riddles:

1. What has keys but can’t open locks? Answer: A piano.
2. What comes down but never goes up? Answer: Rain.
3. What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs? Answer: A clock.
4. What is full of holes but still holds water? Answer: A sponge.
5. What is always in front of you but can’t be seen? Answer: The future.
6. When do you stop at green and go at red? Answer: When eating a watermelon.
7. What can you catch but not throw? Answer: A cold.
8. What has a neck but no head? Answer: A bottle.
9. What gets wetter as it dries? Answer: A towel.
10. What has a head, a tail, is brown, and has no legs? Answer: A penny.
11. What can travel around the world while staying in a corner? Answer: A stamp.
12. What has one eye but can’t see? Answer: A needle.
13. What has many keys but can’t open a single lock? Answer: A piano.
14. What can you break, even if you never pick it up or touch it? Answer: A promise.
15. What has words, but never speaks? Answer: A book.
16. What gets bigger when more is taken away? Answer: A hole.
17. What can fly without wings? Answer: Time.
18. What is made of water but if you put it into water, it will die? Answer: Ice.
19. What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks? Answer: A river.
20. What has a thumb and four fingers but is not alive? Answer: A glove.

B1 Level Riddles:

1. What becomes wetter the more it dries? Answer: A towel.
2. What has a bottom at the top? Answer: A leg.
3. You see a boat filled with people, yet there isn’t a single person on board. How is that possible? Answer: All the people are married.
4. What word is spelled incorrectly in every dictionary? Answer: Incorrectly.
5. What can travel all around the world without leaving its corner? Answer: A stamp.
6. What has many teeth but can’t bite? Answer: A comb.
7. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years? Answer: The letter ‘M’.
8. What has a head and a tail but no body? Answer: A coin.
9. What can be caught but is not a cold? Answer: A yawn.
10. What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it? Answer: Silence.
11. What has an eye but cannot see and often comes out at night? Answer: A needle.
12. What gets bigger the more you take away from it? Answer: A hole.
13. What goes up and down but doesn’t move? Answer: A staircase.
14. What can fly without wings? Answer: Time.
15. What begins with T, ends with T, and has T in it? Answer: A teapot.
16. What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps? Answer: A river.
17. What is always coming but never arrives? Answer: Tomorrow.
18. What can be broken but is never held? Answer: A promise.
19. What has one eye but can’t see anything at all? Answer: A needle.
20. What has a heart that doesn’t beat? Answer: An artichoke.

B2 Level Riddles:

1. What has roots as nobody sees, is taller than trees, up, up it goes, and yet never grows? Answer: A mountain.
2. What has cities, but no houses; forests, but no trees; rivers, but no water? Answer: A map.
3. What can travel around the world while staying in one spot? Answer: A stamp.
4. What has a heart that doesn’t beat? Answer: An artichoke.
5. What is so delicate that even mentioning it may break it? Answer: Silence.
6. What begins and ends with the letter ‘E’ but only contains one letter? Answer: An envelope.
7. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years? Answer: The letter ‘M’.
8. What is always in front of you but can never be seen? Answer: The future.
9. What goes up and down but remains in the same place? Answer: Stairs.
10. What can be broken without being touched or seen? Answer: A promise.
11. What gets wet while drying? Answer: A towel.
12. What has a neck but no head, two arms but no hands? Answer: A shirt.
13. What starts with a ‘P’, ends with an ‘E’, and has thousands of letters? Answer: Post office.
14. What is made of water but if you put it into water, it dies? Answer: Ice.
15. What can speak without a mouth and listen without ears? Answer: A smartphone.
16. What is so fragile that speaking it breaks it? Answer: Silence.
17. What has a ring but no finger? Answer: A telephone.
18. What is as light as a feather, but even the world’s strongest man couldn’t hold it for more than a minute? Answer: Breath.
19. What begins with T, is filled with T, and ends in T? Answer: A teapot.
20. What has keys but opens no locks, space but no room, you can enter but can’t go outside? Answer: A keyboard.

C1 Level Riddles:

1. What dances and skips, giggles and flips, but only when the light is turned off? Answer: Fireflies.
2. What is the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end, and the end of every race? Answer: The letter ‘E’.
3. What English word retains the same pronunciation, even after you take away four of its five letters? Answer: Queue.
4. What has a head, a tail, is sometimes bright and sometimes dull, but has no body? Answer: A coin.
5. What has branches and leaves but no bark? Answer: A library.
6. What can fill a room but takes up no space? Answer: Light.
7. What is so fragile that discussing it might break it? Answer: Silence.
8. What can travel from there to here by disappearing, and reappear by staying still? Answer: A fog.
9. What gets sharper the more you use it? Answer: The brain.
10. What can you hold in your right hand but not in your left? Answer: Your left hand.

C2 Level Riddles:

1. What exists when one person knows it, but ceases to exist when everyone knows it? Answer: A secret.
2. What is the only word in the English language that is always spelled incorrectly? Answer: Incorrectly.
3. What is so delicate that even acknowledging its existence can destroy it? Answer: Silence.
4. What diminishes its presence by increasing its strength and grows its absence by decreasing its strength? Answer: Darkness.
5. What has a golden head, a golden tail, but no body? Answer: A gold coin.
6. What is both a question and an answer, but never a problem? Answer: ‘What?’
7. What can speak without a voice, listen without ears, and tell without speaking? Answer: A book.
8. What has keys but no locks, space but no room, and you can enter but cannot go outside? Answer: A keyboard.
9. What is always coming but never arrives? Answer: Tomorrow.
10. What can be seen twice in a week, once in a year, but never in a day? Answer: The letter ‘E’.