The catch in this riddle is that the second sentence is not a question. It doesn’t ask ‘What is the name of the fourth son’ because it doesn’t have a question mark. Instead, the sentence is a statement and confirms that ‘What’ the name of the fourth son is. Unsurprisingly, a lot of people have had strong debates about this particular riddle. Some of them thought that the fourth child’s name is ‘Someone’, while others said it’s ‘West’ since the other children are called ‘North, South, and East. Since someone’s mother has four sons, North, West, and South, the name of the fourth son is someone.
Someone’s mother has four sons; three are named North, East, and West. What’s the name of the fourth son?
Read the question carefully “Can you guess the name of the fourth son?” The answer seeker is looking for a YES or NO, not the name of the fourth son. Don’t let these questions fool you, you are smarter than this.
The very first line states, “Someone’s mother has… ” and so on. From this, one can ascertain that the name of the fourth child is “someone”.
However, if one looks at the names of the other children (North, East, West), it seems very likely that the name of the fourth child is “South”, which is in keeping with the pattern (the cardinal directions).
And finally, the way the question is phrased, it seems that no matter what the name of the fourth son is, the answer to the question can only be ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Since someone’s mother has four sons, North, West, and South, the name of the fourth son is someone. The correct answer is ‘someone‘. The question is a common riddle based on the mathematical topic called ‘sequences’.
Someone’s mother has four sons
You might remember the last “viral” riddle that circulated on Facebook, Your Parents are at the Door. If you got the answer wrong, you had to post an embarrassing photo of yourself, and then post the riddle yourself. Well, now we have a new one flying around. It’s not particularly new, the riddle has been around for quite some time and has a few variations of the wording.
Here is the most common phrasing of the riddle that I found being shared.
Someone’s mother has four sons. North, South, and East. What is the name of the fourth son. Private message me the name of the fourth son. If you lose, you have to repost.
The obvious answer would be the name of the fourth son is West. Right? Well, you would be incredibly wrong and suffering the social media consequences. Another popular answer is that the name of the poor forgotten son is actually named, Someone. Although a solid guess, it is still incorrect.
Let’s take a peek at that punctuation in the riddle itself. Yes, for once, we can go on decent punctuation in the social media world. The line we need to focus on is,
What is the name of the fourth son.
Notice that the line does not contain a question mark? That line is a statement, and also the answer to our little social media riddle. It actually states the name of the fourth son, and therefore contains the answer. I know I spoiled it for you, but I just want to make the world a better place and have what my father calls a “teaching moment”. Go forth and conquer your riddles, and let us all know if you have a better answer!
Additionally, I’m not sure whether this is a mistake or not, but in the middle sentence (What is the name of the last son.) a full stop is used instead of a question mark. This would mean that the son’s name is ‘What’, unlikely as it seems.
Therefore the answer is: Yes, I can guess the name of the fourth son, and the most likely names are either Someone South or What.
Someone is the right answer. Some of you are saying what can also be the answer. But what I think is the way the question is framed in the first sentence itself makes it obvious.