"Unusual skills" Hinge Answers
The useless skill beats the impressive one. "I can tell what time it is within ten minutes without checking" gets replies; "fluent in three languages" gets read as a CV line and scrolled past.
This prompt looks like an invitation to brag and is actually an invitation to be odd. An impressive skill makes the reader feel measured. A pointless one makes them want to test you, which is the entire mechanism by which this prompt generates conversations.
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What makes a good “Unusual skills” answer
Useless is the point
The word is unusual, not impressive. A genuinely useless skill is rarer, funnier and much easier to reply to than a genuinely good one.
Testable gets messages
If a reader could plausibly challenge you on it, they often will. That is a free opening line you did not have to write.
Precision sells it
"Within ten minutes" is funnier than "roughly". A specific figure makes an absurd claim sound like it was measured.
One skill only
A list dilutes the joke and turns the answer into a résumé. Pick the strangest and commit.
“Unusual skills” answers by tone
Use them as they are, or as a shape to put your own detail into. The second option is always better: a copied answer stops working the moment someone asks about it.
Useless and specific
The best group. Precise, pointless, and impossible not to ask about.
- I can tell what time it is within ten minutes without checking.
- I can identify most crisps by sound.
- Reversing a trailer, which has been useful exactly twice.
- I know the capital of every country except the one you are about to ask.
- Folding a fitted sheet properly, which I will demonstrate unprompted.
- I can guess the price of a supermarket shop to within two pounds.
Physical party tricks
Reliable because they are demonstrable on a date.
- Whistling with two fingers, badly, loudly.
- I can open most things with a key and confidence.
- Catching things thrown at me without looking, roughly half the time.
- Juggling three of anything, including things that should not be juggled.
- I can do a full split, which serves no purpose in my life.
Social and observational
Quieter, and often the ones that get the most thoughtful replies.
- I can remember the name of anyone I have met once and nothing else about them.
- Finding the quietest table in any pub within about forty seconds.
- I can tell within one sentence whether someone has actually read the book.
- Packing a dishwasher to a standard that has ended friendships.
- I can parallel park first time, and I will mention it.
Genuinely unusual
For when the real answer is strange enough. Understate it and let it land.
- I can read music but not play anything.
- Sign language, learned for one job, kept for no reason.
- I can name the year of most cars from the back.
- Skimming stones properly, taught by someone who took it far too seriously.
Short answers
For when the profile is already wordy elsewhere. Every one of these is under forty characters.
- Identifying crisps by sound.
- Folding a fitted sheet.
- Whistling, two fingers, loudly.
- Guessing the shop total.
- Reversing a trailer.
The same answer, rewritten
Instead of
Good memory.
Try
I can remember the name of anyone I have met once and nothing else about them.
The second is the same claim with a flaw attached, and the flaw is what makes it funny and believable.
Instead of
I am quite good at guessing things.
Try
I can guess the price of a supermarket shop to within two pounds.
Vague becomes testable. Testable gets messages that say "go on then".
Instead of
I can juggle.
Try
Juggling three of anything, including things that should not be juggled.
Same skill, but the second one has a joke and an image in it rather than a bare fact.
Answers that do not work
“Fluent in three languages.”
Impressive and not unusual in the sense the prompt means. It reads as a CV bullet and gives nobody anything to say.
“I am a really good listener.”
Not a skill, not unusual, and claimed on an enormous number of profiles.
“Overthinking.”
The stock joke answer. It has been used so heavily that it now reads as no answer at all.
“Cooking, photography and guitar.”
A list of normal hobbies. Each one is fine elsewhere on the profile and none of them belong here.
How to write your own
Ignore your actual talents
Skip anything that would go on a CV. Start from the things friends find funny that you can do.
Add a number
Within ten minutes, to within two pounds, roughly half the time. A figure turns a claim into a bit.
Check it can be challenged
The best answers here invite a "prove it". If nobody could test yours, find one they could.
Cut the second skill
If you listed two, delete the safer one. The strange one was doing all the work.
Write a “Unusual skills” answer
Nine questions about how you actually are, then an answer built from your details rather than from the list above. Every draft is checked against roughly 90 dating-app clichés before you see it.
Prefer to start from scratch? Open the full generator.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as an unusual skill on Hinge?
Something small, specific and largely useless. Identifying crisps by sound, guessing a supermarket total to within two pounds, or folding a fitted sheet properly all work far better than genuine accomplishments, because the prompt is asking you to be odd rather than impressive.
Why do impressive skills do badly here?
Because they read as a CV line. Speaking three languages is admirable, but it gives the reader nothing to say beyond "wow", and "wow" is not a conversation. A useless skill invites a challenge, which is a message.
Should the answer be funny?
It usually is, but it works best when you state it flatly rather than signalling the joke. Precision does the comedy for you. "Within ten minutes" is funnier than "I am weirdly good at guessing the time".
Can I list more than one?
Better not to. A list turns the answer into a résumé and dilutes whichever one was actually interesting. Pick the strangest and let it stand alone.
How long should it be?
Under fifteen words in almost every case. Hinge allows 150 characters, but the joke here depends on stopping early.
Can RizzProfile write one for me?
Yes. It asks about your interests and the way you talk, then writes an answer in your register rather than picking from a fixed list, and it screens the result for clichés before showing it.
More prompt answers
- “Worst idea I ever had”Pick a bad decision that cost you money, dignity or a weekend, and that ended fine.
- “My love language is”Do not name one of the five.
- “Give me travel tips for”Name a place you are genuinely about to visit, and add the specific thing you need help with.
- “I'm a real nerd about”Pick the least impressive thing you know too much about.
- “A pro and a con of dating me”The con has to cost the reader something real.
Or start from the hinge prompts hub.