Alphabet Reasoning
Alphabet Reasoning section include questions on -
Letter Shifts
Find Missing Letters
Hidden Words
Compound Words
Analogy
Synonym
Antonym
Letter Shifts
In these questions, two words will be given. You will be asked to move one letter from the
word on the left to the word on the right to make two new words. You cannot rearrange any
letters, but the letter that you move can fit anywhere in the second word.
For example:
Identify one letter from the word on the left which can be moved to the word on the right to
make two new words
PLANE and BARD
Step 1: You should first try to remove one letter at a time from the first letter to see if this
can make a new word.
In above example,
letter P can be removed to make new word LANE
letter L can be removed to make new word PANE
letter E can be removed to make new word PLAN
Step 2: Once these letters are identified, place them in the second word at different position
to see if this makes a new word.
Letter P & L will not make a valid word. Letter E will make word BEARD (and also BARED).
So your answer is letter E, and two new words are PLAN and BEARD (or BARED)
Find Missing Letters
Two pairs of incomplete words will be given with missing first and last letters in each pair of
words. You need to identify the same letter which can complete both these sets of incomplete
word.
For example:
Find the missing one letter that will complete the word in front of the brackets and begin the
word after the brackets.
The same letter must fit into both sets of brackets.
sai [ ] eft mea [ ] one
Step 1: Try each alphabets starting from a, b, c, and so on with first pair of words and check
if it makes two valid words. For multiple choice exams, try the letters already provided in the
answer sheet to speed up the process.
Step 2: Try using the same letter with second pair of words to check if it makes two valid
words. If not, continue with step 1 using next letters from alphabet series.
In above example, the missing letter is ‘l’, and the four words are:
sail left meal lone
Good vocabulary is essential to be successful in these questions.
Hidden Words
A sentence will be given and you will be asked to find a hidden four letter word or two
adjacent words in which a four letter word is hidden - at the end of one word and beginning
of the next word.
For example:
Find the hidden four letter word in the sentence:
Mike will be thirty five years old this Sunday.
Step 1: Go through all the letters quickly and check if you can spot the hidden word
immediately. In multiple choice exam, scan through the answers carefully (which are already
provided in the answer sheet) to check if you can identify the correct word.
Step 2: If this does not work, cover letters at the beginning and end of each pair of words
starting from left and try to make four letter words using combination of 3 – 1, 2 - 2 and 1 –
3 letters from left and right words.
Continue this process for all adjacent letters until you identify a valid four letter hidden word.
In the above example, using this technique for words 'years old’ gives –
3-1 2-2 1-3
years years years
old old old
arso is rsol is sold is
not a not a a valid
word word word
The answer is: sold (two adjacent words are: years old).
Compound Words
In these questions, you will be given two sets of words and asked to find two words, one from
each set that together make one new word. The word from the first set (i.e. set on the left)
always comes first.
For example:
(is was lone) (his her king)
By looking into these two sets of words, if you can not identify the new word easily, try to
make all nine possible words. The above example makes following nine words
ishe iskin was was
ishis
r g his her
waski lone lone lonei
ng his her ng
One of these nine words will be the correct answer, which in this case is: washer
Analogy
In these questions, you will be given two sentences (or words) along with choice of words in
brackets. You will be asked to choose one word from each bracket which best complete the
given two sentences.
Your aim here is to identify the similarity in meaning (which makes basis of comparison)
between these two sentences. Once the analogy is identified you will be able to select the
correct answer.
For example:
February is to (January April December) as
Tuesday is to (Sunday Thursday Friday)
Step 1: Look each sentence carefully and try to identify the relationship between the
sentences and the words in the bracket. This will help you to identify the basis of comparison.
In above example, the relationship between February and other months in brackets is–
- January comes one month before (-1)
- April comes two months after (+2)
- December comes ten months after (+10)
The relationship between Tuesday and other days of weeks is –
- Sunday comes two days before (-2) or five days after (+5)
- Thursday comes two days after (+2)
- Friday comes three days after (+3)
Step 2: Once the basis of comparison is identified (which is duration in above example),
identify the correct answer which complete the two sentences correctly.
The correct answer here is: February is to April as Tuesday is to Thursday
Synonym
In these questions you will be given two sets of words and will be asked to find two words,
one from each group, that are most similar in meaning.
For example:
(dir sav dela (recov filt laz
ty e y) er hy e)
Step 1: Carefully examine these two sets and see if you can identify the correct answer
quickly.
Step 2: If not, make all possible combination of words, i.e.
dirty – dirty – dirty –
recover filthy laze
save – save – save –
recover filthy laze
delay – delay – delay –
recover filthy laze
Step 3: With your knowledge of meanings for these words, identify the correct combination
of words with similar meanings.
The correct answer here is: dirty – filthy
Antonym
In these questions you will be given two sets of words and will be asked to find two words,
one from each group, that are most opposite in meaning
For example:
(chea (libert
freedom cash) money costly)
Step 1: Carefully p y examine these two
sets and see if you can identify the
correct answer quickly.
Step 2: If not, make all possible combination of words, i.e.
cheap – cheap – cheap –
liberty money costly
freedom freedom – freedom
– liberty money – costly
cash – cash – cash –
liberty money costly
Step 3: With your knowledge of meanings for these words, identify the correct combination
of words with opposite meanings.
The correct answer here is: cheap – costly
