Verbal Reasoning Complete the Word
The SPELL method in four minutes — one real question, solved step by step.
A Complete the Word question prints one word of a sentence in capitals. Three letters next to each other have been taken out of it. You find the three that complete the word.
All five options are real three-letter words, so "is it a word?" tells you nothing. The three letters go in together, in the same order. The finished word must be spelt right and make sense in the sentence.
The video above and the worked example below take apart the same question.
The method
Five steps: scan the sentence, picture the word, each option every gap, letter by letter, look back at the sentence — and their first letters spell SPELL, which is exactly what the question asks you to do.
- Step 1 of 5
Scan the sentence
Read it all the way through. What kind of word is missing: a thing, a doing word or a describing word? Does it need an ending, like -ed, -ing or -s? - Step 2 of 5
Picture the word
Think of a word that fits the sentence and keeps the capitals in the same order. If no word comes, go straight on to the next step. - Step 3 of 5
Each option, every gap
Put each option's three letters into every gap in the capitals, even in front of the first letter. Read what you make. An option that makes nothing in any gap goes. - Step 4 of 5
Letter by letter
Check the word you made against the word you pictured, one letter at a time. Some options build the right word with one letter wrong. - Step 5 of 5
Look back at the sentence
Read it again with your word in. It must be a real word, spelt right, and it must make sense.
About 30 seconds each.
Watch for these traps
We worked through all 23 Complete the Word questions in GL's own practice papers. Three things catch people.
- The gap can be anywhere. It can even be in front of the first letter: WIN goes in front of TER to make WINTER. And the capitals can already look like a whole word. MET looks finished, but ARK goes inside it to make MARKET. GL's papers do both, so try every gap before you cross an option off.
- One wrong letter. Some options build the right word with just one letter wrong. In "She stacked the clean plates in the CUPRD", BOW and BOG both look like cupboard at a glance. Only BOA spells it. 7 of GL's 23 questions set a trap like this, and step 4 is what catches it.
- The letters can change their sound. EAT doesn't sound like eat inside FEATHER, and BOA sounds nothing like boa inside CUPBOARD. This happens a lot in GL's papers. Go by the spelling, not the sound.
Stuck? Steps 3, 4 and 5 always finish it, even when no word comes. Every option in every gap, check the spelling, read it back. Never leave it blank.
Try these yourself
Now have a go yourself — tap the option that completes the word.
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 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.