Things That Come in Fours
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50 free Things That Come in Fours trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Four is the number the world seems to organise itself around. There are four seasons in a year, four suits in a deck of cards, four chambers in a human heart and four bases in the code of DNA. People have copied the habit ever since: four Gospels, four Beatles, four houses at Hogwarts, four faces on Mount Rushmore. This quiz collects the best-known things that come in fours and asks you to tell the members apart. Which chamber of the heart does the heavy lifting? Which Horseman rides the pale horse? Which of the big four tennis tournaments is played on clay? The questions range across nature, science, sport, music, books, religion, history and games, with a few sets of four you may not have met before. It suits pub quiz writers hunting for a themed round, teachers who want a number-themed warm-up, and anyone who enjoys general knowledge with a twist. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up the story behind each foursome as you play.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which of the four suits in a deck of cards has the most ornate ace, a relic of an English tax?
Spades
Spades got the fancy ace because English law once required that card to carry the printing house's insignia, and makers kept the flourish long after the rule was dropped.
Q 02Which of the four chambers of the human heart pumps oxygen-rich blood through the aorta to the whole body?
Left ventricle
The left ventricle has thicker walls than its right-hand twin, because it must push blood around most of the body while the other only has to reach the lungs.
Q 03Which of the four Beatles was the last to join, replacing drummer Pete Best in the summer of 1962?
Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr was poached from another Liverpool group, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and first played as a Beatle at a horticultural society dance.
Q 04Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, a set of violin concertos published in 1725, opens with which season?
Spring
Spring comes first, and Vivaldi labelled what the music paints: its second movement carries the instruction that one part is a barking dog.
Q 05Which of the four presidents carved on Mount Rushmore is the only one who served in the 20th century?
Roosevelt
Roosevelt, the Theodore who took office in 1901, was chosen to stand for the nation's development; the other three faces stand for its foundation, expansion and preservation.
Q 06In the Book of Revelation, which of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse rides a pale horse?
Death
Death is the only one of the four riders the text names outright, and the only one who carries nothing; instead Hades follows close behind him.
Q 07Three leaves of a four-leaf clover are said to stand for faith, hope and love; what does the fourth mean?
Luck
Luck is the fourth leaf's meaning, and it is hard won: only about one clover in 5,000 grows the extra leaf.
Q 08Which of the four houses of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books has a badger as its mascot?
Hufflepuff
Hufflepuff wears yellow and black to match its badger, and prizes hard work, patience, justice and loyalty over cleverness or daring.
Q 09Which of the four ABO blood types is the universal red cell donor when it is also Rh-negative?
Type O
Type O red cells carry neither the A nor the B antigen, so a recipient's antibodies find nothing on them to attack.
Q 10Which carmaker's badge of four linked rings recalls the 1932 merger of four companies into Auto Union?
Audi
Audi is Latin for 'listen', a translation of founder August Horch's surname, and his earlier firm, Horch, was another of the four that merged.
Q 11The only one of tennis's four Grand Slam tournaments played on clay courts is held in which city?
Paris
Paris stages it at Stade Roland Garros, a stadium named not after a tennis champion but after a French pilot of the First World War.
Q 12Which of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wears a purple mask and fights with a long wooden staff?
Donatello
Donatello is the brains of the four: in the 1987 cartoon he invents the team's gear, including the Turtle Van and the Turtle Blimp.
Q 13Most medieval European T-O world maps were drawn with which of the four cardinal directions at the top?
East
East took the top of most of them, so Asia, drawn as large as Europe and Africa combined, filled the upper half, and many put the Garden of Eden up there.
Q 21Which of the four main lobes of the human brain contains the primary auditory cortex, the centre for hearing?
Temporal
The temporal lobe sits behind the temples and also holds the hippocampus, the structure the brain needs in order to make new memories.
Q 22Which of the four compartments of a cow's stomach is the first and largest, where microbes ferment grass?
Rumen
The rumen holds 25 gallons or more in a grown cow, and the half-digested cud it softens is sent back up to the mouth to be chewed a second time.
Q 23Which of the four types of human teeth, sometimes nicknamed eye teeth, are shaped for tearing food?
Canines
Canines tear food while incisors cut it and the back teeth crush it, though human ones are small and blunt beside the fangs of many other mammals.
Q 14Which of the four bases of DNA is swapped for uracil when the genetic code is copied into RNA?
Thymine
Thymine always pairs with adenine across the double helix, held by two hydrogen bonds, and RNA simply uses uracil in its place.
Q 15The four Galilean moons, which Galileo reported to the world in 1610, orbit which planet?
Jupiter
Jupiter's four big moons were first called the Medicean Stars by Galileo, in honour of Cosimo de' Medici, whom he had once tutored in mathematics.
Q 16Which of the four fundamental forces of nature is the feeblest, yet rules the motion of planets and galaxies?
Gravitation
Gravitation wins at cosmic scales because it always attracts and never repels, while positive and negative electric charges mostly cancel each other out.
Q 17In the ancient theory of the four humours, a person ruled by blood was said to have which temperament?
Sanguine
Sanguine people were ruled by blood, thought to make them brave, hopeful and loving, while too much yellow bile made the choleric type quick to anger.
Q 18Which of the four Gospels of the New Testament do most scholars believe was the first to be written?
Mark
Mark is thought to have come first because Matthew and Luke both appear to expand on it, which is why the three share so much material.
Q 19Which of the four strokes must be swum first in an individual medley race under World Aquatics rules?
Butterfly
Butterfly opens the individual event, but a medley relay starts with backstroke instead, because that swimmer has to begin in the pool rather than dive in.
Q 20A standard string quartet is made up of two violins, a cello and which other instrument?
Viola
The viola completes the line-up that Joseph Haydn helped make standard, which is why he is often called the father of the string quartet.
Q 24Which of the four time zones of the contiguous United States has Chicago as its largest American city?
Central
Central Time is where the system began: all four zones were introduced in Chicago at noon on 18 November 1883, with time signals sent out by telegraph.
Q 25Which state meets Utah, Colorado and New Mexico at the Four Corners Monument, the only such point in America?
Arizona
Arizona shares the spot with two tribal governments as well: the Navajo Nation, which runs the monument, borders the Ute Mountain Ute reservation there.
Q 26The Union Jack has no symbol for one of the UK's four nations; which city is that nation's capital?
Cardiff
Cardiff's country, Wales, was omitted because it counted as part of the Kingdom of England when the first union flag was designed in 1606.
Q 27Which of the four ghosts in Pac-Man is programmed to ambush the player rather than simply give chase?
Pinky
Pinky's original Japanese name meant 'ambusher', and the other three were named for chasing, being fickle and playing dumb.
Q 28Which of the four March sisters in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is the tomboy who longs to be a writer?
Jo
Jo was Alcott's portrait of herself: the author recalled being a tomboy too, one who liked running foot-races and climbing trees.
Q 29In The Three Musketeers, which hotheaded youth joins Athos, Porthos and Aramis to make a fourth?
D'Artagnan
D'Artagnan was a real soldier: Charles de Batz de Castelmore served Louis XIV as captain of the Musketeers of the Guard and fell at the siege of Maastricht.
Q 30Which pop group, winners of the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, is named after its four members' first initials?
ABBA
ABBA stands for Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid, and the name began as a play on words: Abba was already a well-known Swedish fish-canning company.