Verbal Reasoning Complete the Word
A Complete the Word question hides one word in a sentence. Three of its letters have been taken out. They always come from one unbroken run. You find the three that slot back in.
The finished word has to be spelt correctly and make sense in the sentence. Both, every time.
In Compound Words the meaning is a trap. Here the meaning is your best clue. Read the sentence first.
The method
Five beats: cover it, say the word, match the letters, walk the gap, read it back.
- Cover it. Put a finger over the capitals. Read the sentence without them. "A heavy ______ soaked the garden."
- Say the word. Out loud, before you look at a single option. The sentence usually hands it to you. Meaning is the fastest way in.
- Match the letters. Hold your word against the printed capitals. Are they all there, in that order, with a gap for three more? If so, read the three off and find them in the list.
- Walk the gap. No word came? Then work the letters instead. Read the capitals out loud as printed. Where they stop sounding like English is where the three go. Try each option after one letter first. Then walk right, one gap at a time.
- Read it back. Put your finished word into the sentence and read it. It has to be a real word. It also has to fit the meaning.
About 25 seconds each.
💡 Worked example
A word in the sentence has had three letters taken out.
Find the missing three letters that complete the word.
A heavy SER soaked the garden.
How to answer
Rules to watch
- All five options are real three-letter words. Every time, in all 35 of our questions. So "is it a word?" tells you nothing. The capitals and the sentence do all the work.
- After one letter is the likeliest spot — 16 of our 35 questions. But that leaves 19 that do something else. Treat it as a first guess, not a rule.
- It can go almost anywhere else. After three letters in HUSBAND. After four in WARDROBE. After five in IMPORTANT. After six in GOVERNMENT. Walk right until it fits.
- Sometimes the options are near-twins. In 5 of our 35 questions, three or more of the options are a single letter apart: TAN, TEN, TIN, TON. The question has quietly become a spelling test.
- The letters never change order. ERR goes in as E, R, R and never as R, R, E.
Watch for these traps
- Trying only one gap position. Much the most common. The first questions anyone meets put the block after one letter, so the habit sets straight away. Try every gap before you reject an option.
- Trusting "it is a real word". All five options are real words, always, so that check filters out nothing. It feels like progress. It is not.
- Reordering the three letters. The block looks like an anagram, especially just after Move a Letter. Four of our questions offer a straight anagram of the answer, right beside it. HOSPITAL offers both PIT and TIP. FRIGHTENED offers TEN and NET.
- Picking the near-twin. The options are TAN, TEN, TIN, TON. You find the gap easily. Then you lose the mark on the vowel. Say the finished word slowly: im-por-tant.
- Freezing at a long word. GOVERNMENT, DICTIONARY and GRANDMOTHER all stop people thinking about meaning. They start matching letters instead. Go back to the sentence. It is doing more work than the capitals are.
- The option that fits the topic. Rare — we found it once, and it is worth knowing. In "Their pet FET curled up in its cage" one option is CAT. The sentence has already put pets in your head, so cat feels right. But FCATET is not a word. The option has to build the word, not match the subject.
If nothing comes, work down this list rather than guessing:
- Read the sentence again without the capitals. Is the missing word a thing, a doing word or a describing word?
- Look at the ending. Does the word need to finish -ED, -ING, -ER or -ABLE?
- Take each option and try it in every gap, left to right. Most attempts die instantly.
- Choose from what is left. Never leave it blank.
Try these yourself
Now have a go yourself — tap the option that completes the word.
✏️ Question 1
A word in the sentence has had three letters taken out.
Find the missing three letters that complete the word.
Her HUSD came home from work late.
The answer is BAN
the person who comes home from work is a HUSBAND. This block goes in after three letters. Only one letter is left after it. That is the position people forget to try. Read it back: "Her husband came home from work late."
✏️ Question 2
A word in the sentence has had three letters taken out.
Find the missing three letters that complete the word.
The endless drizzle made the campers MISBLE.
The answer is ERA
MISERABLE. Look at what you were offered. EAR, ARE, ERA, OAR and AIR are nearly the same letters shuffled about. Only ERA is in the right order here. MISEARBLE and MISAREBLE are nothing.
✏️ Question 3
A word in the sentence has had three letters taken out.
Find the missing three letters that complete the word.
It is IMPORT to check your answers before the end of the test.
The answer is TAN
IMPORTANT. The gap is easy here. The block goes in after five letters, near the end. The whole question is the vowel. Say it slowly, im-por-tant, and pick TAN.
✏️ Question 4
A word in the sentence has had three letters taken out.
Find the missing three letters that complete the word.
Their kind GDMOTHER fed the cat while they were away.
The answer is RAN
GRANDMOTHER. Eleven letters is meant to scare you off the meaning. So go back to the sentence. Somebody kind who feeds your cat is a grandmother. Then the block is obvious. It sits after just one letter.
Related
- The complete 11+ question-type guide
- VR: Compound Words — the opposite reflex: there meaning is a trap, here it is your main clue
- VR: Hidden Word — a word hiding across a join
- 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 15 arcade 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.