That man's father is my father's son

Question

A man is looking at a photograph. His friend asks who it is. The man replies:

"Brothers and sisters, I have none. But that man's father is my father's son."

Who is in the photograph? Work through the sentence phrase by phrase rather than trusting the first answer that comes to mind, because the most common answer is wrong.

Accepted Answer

The man in the photograph is the speaker's son. Step by step. "My father's son" is a son of the speaker's father. The speaker has no brothers, so the only son of his father is the speaker himself. Substituting, the sentence becomes: "That man's father is me." So the man in the photograph is the speaker's son. The common wrong answer. Many people say "himself". That comes from reading "that man's father is my father's son" as "that man is my father's son"; the extra word "father" is the whole puzzle. A variant. "That man's son is my father's son" would mean the man in the photo is the speaker'…

That man's father is my father's son

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