# Riddle that doesn't make sense and makes sense at the same time [closed]

How many letters are there to the CORRECT answer to this question?

And if you do get the answer please explain how you got it.

• Well played OP. Nov 11, 2013 at 19:35

Four.

$${}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}$$

In Spanish: Cinco.

In Turkish: Dört.

In Russian: три.

In response to the edit:

Parsing the question is not hard. The question seems nonsensical because it means almost nothing in daily life. But if you examine the structure, it becomes clear.

The question begins with "how many," which indicates a numerical answer. The question then asks for a number of letters in an answer. Understanding that the answer is a textual response, then the number of letters referred to must be the total number of letters in the response.

Since any numerical answer can be an answer, we then examine possible answers for correctness. Since there is an implied self-reference, we conclude that the only way for an answer to be correct is if the number of letters in the response is the same as the value of the response.

Hence, four... in English.

• @CameronBuie ;) Nov 11, 2013 at 19:24
• Why? How?... :? Nov 11, 2013 at 19:24
• @K.Rmth The question resolves to "what number's name has as many letters as its numerical value?" Nov 11, 2013 at 19:27
• "Ni" and "san" count in romanized Japanese, and so does "san" in Mandarin. If you allow "一" for $1$ in Chinese, I suppose that's a solution too... Nov 11, 2013 at 19:48
• "Viisi" in Finnish and "Neli" in Estonian. No second solution that I can think of. Finnish has long words for numerals, but unfortunately 8/9 should be swapped for the purposes of this exercise :-/ Nov 11, 2013 at 19:51

$0$

Explanation:

Answer "$0$" has $0$ letters. No need for translations to other languages here :)