Verbal Reasoning Word Pairs
A Word Pairs question shows three pairs of words. The first two pairs show you a change, like barn → bar. You make the same change to finish the third pair.
The second word is always built from the first word's letters, taken at fixed places. So the rule is really a list of numbers. Numbering the letters is the one method that works at every level.
What the words mean is never part of it. Barn and bar is a coincidence. Switch that habit off here.
The method
Five beats: cover it, number and map it, check and widen it, run it, find it.
- Cover the options with your hand. Every option is a real word made from the same letters, so they will suggest rules nobody used.
- Number the letters of the first word, then map its partner. b¹ a² r³ n⁴. Take each letter of bar and write which number it came from. b is 1, a is 2, r is 3. The map is 1, 2, 3.
- Check the map on the second pair, and widen it until it fits both. b¹ e² a³ n⁴ s⁵ under 1, 2, 3 gives bea, not bean, so the map is wrong. Widen it: bean is 1, 2, 3, 4. What both pairs share is "everything except the last letter". Test it back on barn — it works.
- Write the rule down. Then run it on the third word. t¹ r² a³ m⁴ p⁵ without its last letter is tram.
- Uncover the options and find your word. If it is not there, go back to step 3.
About 30 to 35 seconds each. Write the numbers on the paper.
The promise that makes step 5 work
Only one rule can fit both demo pairs, and it predicts exactly one of the five options. A word you cannot find in the list is proof that your rule is wrong. Never take the nearest-looking option.
The maps you will meet
Easiest first.
- A letter dropped. Usually the last or the first. barn → bar, bring → ring. Sometimes one from the middle: brand → band.
- A chunk kept. The first three or four, or the last three or four. button → but, belong → long.
- The word reversed. gum → mug, part → trap. Reversal is only 3, 2, 1, so it needs no new idea.
- Some places, in order. Not always the middle ones. frame → ram is 2, 3, 4. shine → she is 1, 2, 5. bloat → bat is 1, 4, 5.
Up to here the letters have always stayed in order. From here they might not.
- Scrambled places. The hardest kind, and about one question in four at the top. The letters are picked by number and then re-ordered. c¹u²s³t⁴o⁵m⁶ gives must from 6, 2, 3, 4. h¹a²m³p⁴e⁵r⁶ gives ramp from the same four numbers. There is no name for that rule, and you do not need one. That is the point of the map.
Watch for these traps
- A rule that fits the first pair only. Much the most common. Your attention is highest on pair one, and a rule that works feels finished. Check pair two every single time.
- A real word feels like a right word. Every option is a real word made from the source letters, so realness proves nothing. Worse, one option is usually your own answer with its letters shuffled. Ten against net. Tram against mart. Snap against span. Derive first, then look.
- Assuming the letters stay in order. They do in most questions, which is exactly why the habit forms. At the hardest level they do not. If a straight reading gives nothing, number the letters and read the map off.
- Different word lengths in one question. Barn has four letters and beans has five, which breaks the feeling that the pairs should look alike. Count the letters every time: the length gap is what tells "drop the last" apart from "take the first three".
- Doing it in your head. The words are short, so it feels holdable. It works to the middle tiers and then stops. A child who cannot show their numbers cannot find their own mistake.
Try these yourself
Now have a go yourself — tap the word that completes the last pair.
Related
- The complete 11+ question-type guide
- VR: Make a Word — the same idea, but the new word comes from two outer words, not one
- VR: Letter Analogies — its hardest questions make the same move, from how far to where
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.