Question

When a farmer was asked as to how many animals he had ,he replied that all but two were cows all but two were horses and all but two were pigs. how many animals he had in all?

Answer 1

all but means all except.

All but two were cows mean : he had two other animals including cows

All but two were horses mean : he had two other animals including horses

All but two were pigs means he had two other animals including pigs

The total animals were :

1 cow + 1 horse + 1 pig = 3

This is because there are only three animals mentioned and in each case we had 'but only two' to represent the other animals he had.

This means that we had one type of animal for every variety.