I have written two books of riddles and whenever I go into schools, kids love to read them and make up their own. Ever wanted to make up your own riddles? Then here are some tips.
What starts with an ‘R’ and ends with an ‘E’, needs a lot of skill and enjoyed by many? A riddle or a recipe? You decide.
A good riddle should be tricky and funny. Here are some tips to make up your own riddles.
a) Crossover: Try to put together two words – using their sounds and meanings.
What do you get when you cross an exam with an apple? Example.
What do you get when you cross an itch and a needle? Stitch.
b) Replace sounds of words with other similar sounding words.
Knee – can be used for all words ending with nee, ney etc.
Lie – can be used for all words beginning with li / lie / ly and interestingly lie has two meanings, giving you double the scope to invent.
Which part of the body is still learning? Trai-knee (trainee)
c) Use words that sound similar to create new riddles.
Eggs – sound as ex
Ment – can be twisted and used as mint
En – can be made to sound as hen
How did the chef teach you to make an omelet? He showed us an eggs-ample.
Which mint can be expensive? Orna-mint
What do you call a big fat hen? H-enormous
d) Using an atlas, you could gather names of countries that have usable word-parts.
Here are some examples.
Which country is sick? Brazill.
Which is the land of lions? Den-mark.