riddles, the popular “What is it, what is it?”, are a textual genre. They are part of national folklore and present an enigma to be solved. Thus, they have an entertainment character, as they represent games with question and answer. They can be structured with verses and rhymes and also contain malicious content. See some examples below!
Read too: 30 popular sayings and their meanings
What is it, what is it? 132 riddles with answers
1- What is it, what has a crown and scales, but is not a fish?
Answer: The pineapple.
2- What is it, what is it that falls while standing and runs lying down?
Answer: Rainwater.
3- What is it, what is it that is born, runs and never stops?
Answer: River water.
4- What is it, what comes and goes with the guts out?
Answer: The needle.
5- What is it, what is it that has a head, but is not a person; have teeth but no mouth?
Answer: Garlic.
6- What is it, what is a bird, but it has no pity?
Answer: The Hail Mary.
7- What is it, what is it that goes down screaming and goes up crying?
Answer: The bucket full of water.
8- What is it, what is put on the table, cut and not eaten?
Answer: The deck.
9- What is it, what is it that enters the house, but keeps its head out?
Answer: The button.
10- What is it, what is it that has a beak and wings, but doesn't fly?
Answer: The teapot.
11- What is it, what is it that the more you take out, the bigger it gets?
Answer: The hole.
12- What is it, what is it that does not exist raw and is not eaten cooked?
Answer: Lime.
13- What is it, what is it that walks, walks and doesn't get tired?
Answer: The way.
14- What is it, what is it that you eat anyway, but cut yourself crying?
Answer: The onion.
15- What is it, what is it: the place where the doctor hides his mistakes?
Answer: The cemetery.
16- What is it, what is to be eaten and not to be eaten?
Answer: The spoon.
17- What is it, what is it that is born closed, grows closed, but has water inside?
Answer: Coconut.
18- What is it, what are five workers, but only one wears a hat?
Answer: The fingers and the thimble.
19- What is it, what is it that the bigger it is, the less you see?
Answer: Darkness.
20- What is it, what is it that devours everything, but water kills?
Answer: Fire.
21- What is it, what is it: a little yellow house, without a door or window?
Answer: The orange.
22- What is it, what is in the middle of the river?
Answer: The letter “i”.
23- What is, what is above bread?
Answer: The tilde.
24- What is it, what does God have, and the devil too?
Answer: The letter “d”.
25- What is it, what is red on the outside and white on the inside?
Answer: The apple.
26- What is it, what goes in hard and comes out soft?
Answer: The macaroni.
27- What is it, what is it that is silver in the air and gold on the ground?
Answer: The egg.
28- What is, what is green, but not a plant; speaks, but isn't it people?
Answer: The parrot.
29- What is, what is an animal that walks with its paws?
Answer: The duck.
30- What is it, what has more than a thousand holes?
Answer: The sieve.
31- What is it, what is it that hits me, hits you, hits the skirt and hits the waistband?
Answer: The sieve.
32- What is it, what has the green mother, the red daughter, the meek mother, the naughty daughter?
Answer: Pepper.
33- What is it, what is it that walks with its feet on its head?
Answer: The louse.
34- What is it, what comes and goes, but does not change places?
Answer: The door.
35- What is it, what is it that the more it grows, the closer it gets to the ground?
Answer: The donkey's tail.
36- What is it, what is it that always works, but never collects a salary?
Answer: The clock.
37- What is it, what is it that always walks, but never gets tired?
Answer: The clock.
38- What is it, what is it that runs, runs, but is always in the same place?
Answer: The river.
39- What is it, what is it that is made to walk, but does not walk?
Answer: The street.
40-What is it, what is it that a man sees every day, a king rarely, and God has never seen?
Answer: Your peer.
41- What is it, what is it that enters the water and doesn't get wet?
Answer: The shadow.
42- What is it, what do all mothers have, without bread you can't do it, in winter it disappears and appears in summer?
Answer: The tilde.
43- What is it, what is it that is born white, its natural is black, and the more health, the more sadness?
Answer: The vulture.
44- What is it, what is it that passes by us all the time, but no one sees it?
Answer: The wind.
45- What is it, what does she run around the house every day and then hide in a corner again?
Answer: The broom.
46- What is it, what is it that is round like the moon, but in a tiny point; female when she is naked, but dress is male?
Answer: The egg.
47- What is it, what are two sisters in name, changed in opinion; one for dressing, the other for eating?
Answer: The mango.
48- What is it, what is it that is the size of a chip and pulls all the ox out of the bush?
Answer: The fine comb.
49- What is it, what is it called for everything, for heat, for cold, causes joy, is bad, with everyone teases?
Answer: Brandy.
50- What is, what is a big corral, small cattle, pretty girl, frowning man?
Answer: The sky, the stars, the moon and the sun.
51- What is it, what is it that is on high, on high lives, everyone hears it, no one worships it?
Answer: The bell.
52- What is it, what is two twin brothers, but one has paltry luck, because while one serves in the church, the other serves in the kitchen?
Answer: Wine and vinegar.
53- What is it, what is it that is born standing and runs lying down?
Answer: The canoe.
54- What is it, what is it that is planted with the eyes upwards, but is not born?
Answer: The deceased.
55- What is, what is a red beast with two halters?
Answer: A network.
56- What is it, what is it that has a mouth, but does not speak; it has wings, but does not fly; have feet but not walk?
Answer: The clay pot.
57- What is it, what is it that has high towers, beautiful plumes, water in the fruit and flower in the bunch?
Answer: The coconut tree.
58- What is it, what is it that has tall towers and beautiful windows that open and close without anyone touching them?
Answer: The eyes.
59- What is, what is a big corral, small cattle, nobody tells it, but its owner?
Answer: The sky and the stars.
60- What is it, what is it that when everyone dresses in green, to spend Christmas, he covers himself with mourning, for torments to pass?
Answer: The genipapeiro.
61- What is, what is the fish of the sea that has no spine?
Answer: The octopus.
62- What is it, what is it that fits in a house, but doesn't fit in a hand?
Answer: The button.
63- What is it, what is it that cracks here, cracks there and always falls into the little hole?
Answer: The key.
64- What is it, what was a man in this world, almost without guilt he died, his father he never saw, his mother he never knew?
Answer: Adam.
65- What is it, what is it that passes over the water and does not cast a shadow?
Answer: The scream.
66- What is it, what is called a sock, without being melon; Is not the shell as good as the heart?
Answer: Watermelon.
67- What is it, what is a hundred girls in a castle, all of them dressed in yellow?
Answer: A bunch of bananas.
68- What is it, what is the size of a button, opens and closes without a cord?
Answer: The eyes.
69- What is, what is me without be in ingenuity, wool without be of mutton and company without be horse?
Answer: Watermelon.
70- What is, what is a whitewashed house with a pond inside?
Answer: An egg.
71- What is it, what is it that is silent at home and is beating in the bush?
Answer: The axe.
72- What is it, what is it that jumps up and makes baby?
Answer: The goat.
73- What is it, what is it that has feet, but does not walk; he has an eye, but he does not see; have a beard but not shave?
Answer: Sugarcane.
74- What is it, what is it that rapa without being rapadura, rapa without being snuff, what rapa is it?
Answer: Boy.
75- What is it, what is it that has arms, but does not move; have a mouth but not eat?
Answer: The pot.
76- What is it, what is white on the outside and yellow on the inside?
Answer: The egg.
77- What is it, what is three brothers, the eldest has already died, the middle one still lives and the youngest was not born?”
Answer: The past, present and future tenses.
78- What is it, what is it that is born in the bush, in the bush it is created; when you leave the house, is it crying too much?
Answer: The dead man's net stick.
79- What is, what is a white field, black seeds, five plows and a key?
Answer: Paper, letters, fingers and pen (pen).
80- What is, what is a white house without a door or lock?
Answer: The egg.
81- What is it, what is it that the Englishman sings at midnight; marks the hour, but not the month; digs in the ground, but finds no money; has spurs but is not a knight?
Answer: The rooster.
82- What is it, what is it in your corner, where everyone can see it, chew it and throw it away, can't swallow it?
Answer: The mill.
83- What is it, what is it that in the water was born and in the water it was created and if you put it in the water, in the water it will die?
Answer: Salt.
84- What is it, what is it that the beginning is gray, of your life no one is surprised, of the seven sisters you had, the last was a saint?
Answer: Lent.
85- What is it, what is a poor old man huddled, only with the ladies is fine; give them what he has and take from them what they have?
Answer: The fan.
86- What is it, what is it that from Rome came its name and was born crowned; of the thousand children she had, in incarnate did she dress them?
Answer: The pomegranate.
87- What is it, what is a very ladylike lady, who never goes out into the street without being always wet?
Answer: The language.
88- What is it, what is 30 millers, ten carters fighting and an old woman in the middle grinding her makeup?
Answer: Teeth, fingers and tongue.
89- What is, what is white, but not paper; green, but not lemon; red, but not blood; black but not charcoal?
Answer: Watermelon.
90- What is, what is tall like a pine tree and round like a tambourine?
Answer: The well.
91- What is it, what is something that is in the middle of two stones, gives a shout and calls everyone?
Answer: The bell.
92- What is it, what is a little chapel, very round, has a sexton, a lot of mussels, all the saints of the same color?
Answer: The mouth.
93- What is it, what is it that falls into the water and breaks, but falls to the ground and doesn't break?
Answer: Paper.
94- What is it, what is the theater of pleasures, but also of afflictions, of youth and old, from which passions are extinguished; by day is wanted by vagrants and thieves?
Answer: The bed.
95- What is, what is a very old old woman, with death in her throat; Of seven daughters he had, only one is a saint?
Answer: Easter.
96- What is, what is it that shines like silver, but silver is not; cesspool like a pig, but pig isn't it?
Answer: The plow.
97- What is it, what is it that speaks, but has no mouth; he has a voice, but no one sees him; how much does listening say in return, without the fatigue it gives you?
Answer: The echo.
98- What is it, what is it that has a mouth, but does not speak; everyone makes arrest; if it makes some laugh, it makes others suffer?
Answer: The lock.
99- What is it, what is it that never passes, and is always ahead?
Answer: The future.
100- What is, what is an ant that without the first syllable becomes fruit?
Answer: The sauva.
101- What is it, what is it that never comes back, although it has never gone?
Answer: The past.
102- What is it, what is it that is always counted and rarely discounted?
Answer: Age.
103- What is it, what can be iron, ice, chocolate and water at the same time?
Answer: The bar.
104- What is it, what is it that is not flesh or bone, but fills itself with living flesh to withstand the jabs?
Answer: The thimble.
105- What is it, what is it that when written with “o” usually kills and with “a” only serves to tie?
Answer: Shoot and shoot.
106- What is it, what does the blacksmith do, the horse uses, in the garden it's a flower, in food it's seasoning, but on the face it's a mark?
Answer: The carnation.
107- What is it, what can pass before the sun without casting a shadow?
Answer: The wind.
108- What is it, what is it that when it is lost, it can never be found again?
Answer: Time.
109- What is it, what is so strong that it can stop a car with one hand?
Answer: Traffic guard.
110- What is it, what is it that has no legs, but always walks?
Answer: The shoe.
111- What is it, what is it that the hotter the cooler it is?
Answer: Bread.
112- What is, what is a baby born with a mustache?
Answer: A kitten.
113- What is it, what is it that doesn't have a mouth, but has a lot of teeth?
Answer: The saw.
114- What is it, what is it that ends everything with three letters?
Answer: The end.
115-What is it, what is it that has a center, but has no beginning or end?
Answer: The circle.
116- What is it, what is it that when you work, leaves anyone with their mouths open?
Answer: The dentist.
117- What is it, what is it that always goes home through the keyhole?
Answer: The key.
118- What is it, what is it that has more than 40 heads, but cannot think?
Answer: The matchbox.
119- What is, what is easy to get in, but hard to get out?
Answer: Garlic.
120- What is it, what is it that travels all over the world, but always stays in your corner?
Answer: The seal.
121- What is, what is a place that you, even without being a banker or millionaire, can find money?
Answer: The dictionary.
122- What is it, what is it that everyone needs, everyone asks, everyone gives, but no one follows?
Answer: The advice.
123- What is, what is a tame and jumping animal, likes to go prancing, carrying, full of love, inside the bag the puppies?
Answer: The kangaroo.
124- What is it, what has a house, but lives upstairs?
Answer: The button.
125- What is it, what is it, has a mouth, has a tongue, but doesn't speak?
Answer: The shoe.
126- What is, what is in the middle of the egg?
Answer: The letter “v”.
127- What is it, what is missing in a house to form a couple?
Answer: The letter “l”.
128-What is it, what is it that is born in the river, lives in the river and dies in the river, but is not always wet?
Answer: The carioca.
129- What is it, what is it that runs around the whole pasture without moving?
Answer: The fence.
130-What is it, what is two brothers, one is eaten raw, the other roasted?
Answer: Cashew and chestnut.
131- What is it, what is called a bed, in it no one lies down, only a lion gets settled?
Answer: The chameleon.
132- What is it, what is it that one dies burned, another dies singing?
Answer: The cigarette and the cicada.
Structure and characteristics of riddles
THE textual genre guesses is characterized by its enigmatic character. Thus, the interlocutor of the utterance is stimulated to solve a problem. For the solution, it is necessary to have knowledge of the world, that is, to resort to sociocultural knowledge. In this way, this textual genre is configured in a game with question and answer.
the riddles are part of folklore Brazilian, therefore, have a popular character. Some are structured with verses and rhymes, others are characterized by malice and, through the double meaning, lead the interlocutor to imagine an obscene response.
By Warley Souza
Portuguese teacher