Verbal Reasoning Word Pairs
The SLOTS method in about five minutes — one real question, solved step by step.
A Word Pairs question shows three pairs of words, and the last pair has a word missing. You find the word that completes the last pair in the same way as the other two. GL calls these Complete the Third Pair.
In each pair, the second word is built from the first word's letters, taken from fixed places. Plastic and slap have nothing to do with each other: slap is four of plastic's letters, moved about. Word pairs is about slots, not meanings.
The video above and the worked example below take apart the same question. One thing is different: the video shows the five options in another order, so the answer, bush, is lettered E in the video and may carry a different letter here. Same word, different place in the line-up.
The method
Five steps: spot the doubles, label the letters, order the slots, test it on pair two, spell it, then search — and their first letters spell SLOTS, because the answer comes out of slots.
- Step 1 of 5
Spot the doubles
Check the first word of pair one for a letter that appears twice. A doubled letter has two slots, so it could have come from either. Step 4 decides which. - Step 2 of 5
Label the letters
Number the first word's letters in your head, from left to right: slot 1, slot 2, slot 3, and so on. - Step 3 of 5
Order the slots
Take the partner word one letter at a time, and find the slot each letter came from. Those numbers, in order, are the map. The letters often move about, so the order matters. - Step 4 of 5
Test it on pair two
Run the same map on pair two's first word. It must rebuild pair two's partner exactly. If a letter appeared twice, try each of its slots here, and pair two decides. - Step 5 of 5
Spell it, then search
Run the map on the third word and spell the answer in your head before you look at the options. Then find it. If it is not there, your map is wrong. Never take the nearest word.
About 30 seconds each.
Rules to watch
- Easier maps work the same way. Some of our practice questions use simpler maps: a letter dropped (barn and bar is slots 1, 2, 3), the last few letters kept (untidy and tidy is slots 3, 4, 5, 6), or the word backwards (pan and nap is slots 3, 2, 1). Number the letters and read the slots, just the same.
- Every option looks possible. In GL's papers, every wrong answer is built from the third word's letters and is as long as the answer. So the letters and the length cross nothing off. Only the slots decide.
Watch for these traps
We looked at all seven Word Pairs questions in GL's practice papers, and at all 28 wrong answers.
- A doubled letter has two slots. In six of GL's seven, a doubled letter lets pair one fit more than one map. Try both slots on pair two. In (escape ape) (seesaw saw) (carton ?), escape has an E at slot 1 and at slot 6, so the E in ape could come from either. Slots 4, 5 and 1 turn seesaw into S, A, S. Slots 4, 5 and 6 give saw. So pair two decides, and carton gives ton.
- The letters can be re-ordered. In all seven of GL's questions they come out in a new order. In (garden drag) (spider dips) (editor ?), drag uses garden's first four letters, but backwards: slots 4, 3, 2, 1. So editor gives tide. Read editor's first four letters in their old order and you get edit, a real word, but not the answer. Never assume the letters stay in order.
- Look-alike words are offered. In five of GL's seven, a wrong answer is the answer's letters in another order, or one letter away from it. In (napkin kin) (muffin fin) (kitten ?), the map gives ten. Net has the same letters in the wrong order, and tin has one letter wrong. Both are offered. Only the slot order decides, so check every letter is in its place.
Stuck? Go back to pair one and find each letter's slot again, one letter at a time. Never leave a blank.
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 — pairs again, but the letters move along the alphabet
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.