Verbal Reasoning Move a Letter
The SPARE method in four minutes — one real question, solved step by step.
A Move a Letter question gives you two words. You take one letter out of the first word and put it into the second. Both must end up as real words, and nothing else is rearranged.
The options are letters of the first word, in order. So you are really choosing which letter to move. The first word can have six letters, and then one of them is not among the options.
The video above and the worked example below take apart the same question.
The method
Five steps: scan word 1, pick the survivors, add it to word 2, run it along the gaps and end on both real — their first letters spell SPARE: the letter word 1 can spare, and word 2 needs.
- Step 1 of 5
Scan word 1
Take each letter out of word 1 in turn, and read what is left. Check them all, even when an early one works. - Step 2 of 5
Pick the survivors
Keep the letters that left a real word. That is your shortlist. If more than one letter is on it, you are not finished yet. - Step 3 of 5
Add it to word 2
Drop a survivor into word 2. Start at the front. - Step 4 of 5
Run it along the gaps
The letter does not always go at the front, so try every position, one gap at a time, right up to the end. - Step 5 of 5
End on both real
You want the letter that leaves a real word behind and makes a real word in word 2. Two real words, one letter moved, nothing swapped.
About 30 seconds each.
Four things to watch out for
We looked at all fourteen Move a Letter questions in GL's own practice papers.
- Not always the first letter. In nine of the fourteen, the letter that moves is not the first one. Blend loses its l to make bend. Quilt loses its l to make quit, and think its k to make thin. Check every position, every time.
- The shortlist is halfway. In about half of them, more than one letter leaves a real word. Clean gives both lean and clan. Only word 2 picks the one that counts.
- It usually goes inside word 2. Ten of the fourteen put the letter inside word 2. Only two put it at the front, and two on the end. Tar becomes tear, and cub becomes curb. It can go on the end too: ban becomes bank. Try every gap.
- Word 2 can change its sound. Bat becomes beat, and pal becomes opal. Several of GL's questions do this. Go by the new spelling, not the old sound.
Stuck at 30 seconds? Choose from your survivors. A letter that leaves no word behind can never be the answer. Never leave it blank.
Try these yourself
Now have a go yourself — tap the letter that moves across.
Related
- The complete 11+ question-type guide
- VR: Letter Connections — one letter finishes one word and starts the next
- VR: Complete the Word — rebuild a word that has lost a chunk
- VR: Make a Word — build the middle word from two outer words
All example questions come from the Brainblox question bank — practise this question type inside 25+ learning games, timed mock exams and focused practice. Brainblox is an independent app: not affiliated with, endorsed by or licensed by any exam board, school or assessment publisher, and it contains no past papers.