Subject technique
Verbal reasoning question types, with worked examples
By The PlusProgress founder, a practising 11+ tutor who teaches on this platform.
Published 20 September 2026 · Last reviewed September 2026 · 10 min read
A verbal reasoning paper is not one puzzle repeated. It is a run of short blocks, each a different question type with its own rule. The rule is usually printed once above the block and never explained again. Our own question bank is built around 22 live question types, in four families: word and letter manipulation, meaning, codes and numbers, and sentences and logic.
That structure is the reason preparation works at all. Marks are not spread evenly across the paper, they are clustered in blocks, and a block your child cannot start is a whole block of marks gone before the timer has finished with it.
Below is one worked example of every type, minted for this article rather than lifted from a paper. Do them yourself first.
Why do the four families matter more than the list?
Knowing a question’s family is more useful than knowing its name: the family decides how it should be attacked and how quickly it can be learned.
Word and letter manipulation questions treat words as strings of letters. Meaning is almost irrelevant; what matters is seeing where a letter can be removed, moved or shared. These are pure technique, and they improve faster than anything else on the paper.
Meaning questions ask about vocabulary and the links between words. They improve slowly, because they depend on how many words a child knows, and no amount of drill substitutes for reading. The same reading habit is what pays off on a comprehension paper, and how to spend the thirty minutes on a comprehension paper covers that ground.
Codes and numbers questions are arithmetic and pattern work wearing a verbal costume. A child who is comfortable in maths often finds this the easiest family on the paper, and a child who is not can be taught the handful of rules in a fortnight.
Sentences and logic questions are the longest to read and the slowest to answer. There are usually only a few, and they are where children run out of time.
Family one: word and letter manipulation
Seven types, all about the letters rather than the sense. The instruction line is doing real work here, and a child who skims it will solve the wrong puzzle correctly.
Hidden word
A four-letter word straddles the join between two words in a sentence, and the child names the pair. The scan has to run across the gaps, not inside the words.
A four-letter word is hidden across the end of one word and the start of the next. Which pair of words hides it? Wash the apples under the tap.
The usual wrong route
Most children hunt for a whole word sitting inside a single word, so they find apple inside apples and stop. The word has to use letters from both words of the pair.
The method
- Take each pair of neighbours in turn and push the two words together: washthe, theapples, applesunder, underthe, thetap.
- In each one, look only at the letters either side of the join. There are three ways to split four letters across a join: one and three, two and two, three and one.
- At theapples the two and two split gives he plus ap, which is HEAP.
- No other join gives a word: shth, sund, erth and heta are all nonsense.
Move a letter
One letter leaves the first word, which must stay a real word, and is inserted into the second word, which must become one. No other letters move.
Move one letter from the first word to the second, so that both become new words. Letters must not be rearranged. Which letter moves? shout flat. Options: s, h, o, u, t.
The usual wrong route
A child who tests only the first word finds that taking the u out of shout leaves shot, which is a perfectly good word, and marks u. The letter has to survive the second word too, and flat takes no u anywhere.
The method
- Test each letter against the first word only. Removing s leaves hout, h leaves sout, t leaves shou: all nonsense. Removing o leaves shut, removing u leaves shot. Two letters survive.
- Now test both survivors against the second word. Adding u to flat gives flaut, fluat, uflat, flatu: nothing.
- Adding o to flat gives FLOAT.
- So the letter is o: shut and float.
Word within words
The middle word of each group is built out of the words either side of it, at fixed letter positions. The child works the positions out from the first two groups and applies them to the third.
The middle word of each group is made from the two words beside it in the same way each time. Find the missing word. (cabin [into] total) (beach [chat] atlas) (roast [ ? ] opera)
The usual wrong route
Children guess a rule from the first group alone. There is a t in two places in total, so into could be the last two letters of cabin plus the first and second letters of total, or the last two of cabin plus its third and second letters. The second group is what settles it.
The method
- Number the letters of each group straight through, left word first: cabin is one to five, total is six to ten.
- into is i, n, t, o. In cabintotal that is positions four, five, six, seven.
- Check the same positions on the second group. beachatlas at four, five, six, seven gives c, h, a, t: CHAT. The rule holds.
- Apply it to roastopera. Positions four, five, six, seven give s, t, o, p: STOP.
Missing three letters
Three consecutive letters have been taken out of a capitalised word, and those three letters themselves make a word. The restored sentence has to make sense.
Three consecutive letters have been removed from the word in capitals. The three letters make a word. Which is it? The dog slept on the new CAR all afternoon. Options: ARE, LID, PAN, PET, TEN.
The usual wrong route
CAR is already a word, so children read the sentence as finished and start looking for a mistake somewhere else. The capitals are the signal that letters are missing, whether or not what is left reads as English.
The method
- The three letters can go in front of CAR, between any two of its letters, or after it. That is four places for each option.
- Try PET in all four: PETCAR, CPETAR, CAPETR, CARPET. The last one is a word.
- Read it back into the sentence: the dog slept on the new carpet all afternoon. It makes sense.
- Check the others get nowhere. ARE, LID, PAN and TEN make no word in any of the four places.
Same letter completes both
One letter finishes the word before each bracket and starts the word after it, in both rows. Four words have to work at once.
The same letter completes the word in front of both brackets and begins the word after both brackets. Which letter is it? mea [ ? ] rap shor [ ? ] ide. Options: d, l, n, r, t.
The usual wrong route
Children solve the first slot and stop. Both l and n finish mea, giving meal and mean, so a child who has only looked there has two answers and picks one. The letter also has to begin the next word, and neither lrap nor nrap is anything.
The method
- Start with the tightest slot, not the first one. Only three letters finish shor: short, shore, shorn. So the answer is t, e or n.
- Now test those three on the word after the second bracket. tide is a word, eide and nide are not. Only t survives.
- Check t on the first row: meat and trap. Both work.
- The answer is t. Of the rest, d, l and n do finish mea, giving mead, meal and mean, but none of them can start rap; r cannot even finish mea.
Compound words
One word from each group joins, in that order, to make a single real word, and both halves are marked. Sound is no help, because the groups are built to sound alike.
Choose the pair of words, one from each group, that join in the order given to make one real word. Group one: fore, four, for. Group two: cast, cost, coast. Options: fore + cast, four + cast, for + coast, fore + coast, four + cost.
The usual wrong route
The child hears the answer before they see it. Fore, four and for are identical to the ear, so a child who solves this by sound has three equally good answers and marks whichever they read first. Only the spelling decides.
The method
- Ignore the sound. Write each offered pair out as one string.
- forecast, fourcast, forcoast, forecoast, fourcost.
- Only forecast is a word.
- The answer is fore + cast, and both halves have to be marked.
Add a letter
A sentence contains two jumbled words. The same letter has been taken out of both, and the two jumbles have to be solved together.
Two words in this sentence have been jumbled, and the same letter has been removed from each. Which letter is it? The lesca was covered in snow all renwi. Options: b, m, p, r, t.
The usual wrong route
Every wrong option here mends the first jumble and only the first: b gives cables, m gives camels, p gives places, r gives clears. A child who finds one of those and stops has done half the work and lost the mark.
The method
- Read the sentence for its sense. Something was covered in snow, and it happened all through something.
- Take each option and add it to the first jumble, lesca. b gives cables, m gives camels, p gives places, r gives clears, t gives castle. All five work, so the first jumble decides nothing.
- Now add each one to the second jumble, renwi. Only t gives a word: WINTER.
- Read it back: the castle was covered in snow all winter.
Family two: meaning
Six types, and the family where the answer depends on how many words your child knows. These cannot be crammed, but they can be taught as a method: read every option, name why each one fails, and only then mark.
Synonyms
The child finds the one word in each group that is closest in meaning to a word in the other, and marks both. The words in each group start alike, so spelling gives no clue.
Find the two words, one from each group, that are closest in meaning. Mark both. Group one: hinge, hint, hinder. Group two: decide, decorate, delay.
The usual wrong route
Children pair the two words they know best and then invent a link between them, so hint and decide gets marked because both feel like something you do with information. The pair has to be a genuine substitution, not a story.
The method
- There are nine possible pairs. Work along them rather than waiting for one to jump out.
- hinge goes with nothing in the second group: it is a physical object.
- hint means a small clue. Nothing in the second group means that.
- hinder means to hold something up. To delay something is to hold it up. That is the pair.
Antonyms
The same shape as synonyms, but the two words must be as nearly opposite as the groups allow, and association keeps offering itself in place of opposition.
Find the two words, one from each group, that are most opposite in meaning. Mark both. Group one: refined, refuse, reflect. Group two: coarse, coastal, console.
The usual wrong route
refuse and console feel opposed, because saying no and comforting someone pull in different directions, and children take them. Feeling opposed is not being opposite. Refuse also has a second meaning, rubbish, which sends some children hunting for a tidiness word.
The method
- Take each word in the first group and ask what its true opposite would be.
- refuse is opposed by accept or agree. Neither is in the second group.
- reflect is opposed by absorb. Not there either.
- refined describes something smooth, polished or well mannered. coarse describes something rough or unpolished. That is a real opposition, in both the texture sense and the manners sense.
Word analogies
A relationship shown by one pair of words has to be repeated by another, so the child picks one word from each group and the same link must hold twice.
Find the two words, one from each group, that complete the sentence in the best way. Mark both. Kitten is to (cat, kennel, puppy) as calf is to (cow, meadow, leather).
The usual wrong route
Children fix the relationship from the first group alone. Kitten and puppy are both baby animals, so they decide the link is another young animal, and then nothing in the second group fits and they guess. The link is only settled once both halves agree.
The method
- Try each first-group word and name the link it would create. kitten to cat is young to adult. kitten to kennel is animal to home, but a kitten does not live in a kennel. kitten to puppy is one young animal to another.
- Now test each link on the second half. calf to cow is young to adult: it works.
- calf to meadow would be animal to home, but the first half already failed. calf to leather is animal to product, which the first half cannot match.
- The answer is cat and cow.
Odd one out
Five words, four of which share something. The skill is asking what four have in common, not which one looks strange.
Four of these words go together. Which is the odd one out? violin, guitar, banjo, ukulele, trumpet
The usual wrong route
Children look for the word that stands out on the page. Ukulele is the longest and the least familiar, so it collects the wrong marks. Looking odd is not the same as being odd.
The method
- Do not start with the odd one. Start by asking what any four of them share.
- violin, guitar, banjo and ukulele all have strings.
- A trumpet has no strings: it is blown.
- So trumpet is the odd one out. Ukulele is unfamiliar, but it belongs.
Odd two out
Five words, three of which go together. Both of the other two are needed for the mark, and they should make sense as a pair.
Three of these words go together. Find the two that do not. Mark both. oak, willow, birch, coal, slate
The usual wrong route
A child who spots the three that belong feels finished and marks only one of the others. This type is marked all or nothing, so one right answer scores exactly the same as none.
The method
- Find the group of three first. oak, willow and birch are all trees.
- That leaves coal and slate.
- Check that the leftovers cohere, because they usually do: coal and slate are both dug out of the ground.
- Mark both. Neither one alone earns anything.
Dual-meaning word
One word fits both bracketed pairs, in two different senses. The two senses do not have to sound the same.
Which word goes equally well with both pairs? (quarrel, argument) (line, string). Options: cord, dispute, row, spat, tier.
The usual wrong route
Children find a word that fits one bracket beautifully and mark it. spat is a lovely fit for quarrel and argument, and cord is a lovely fit for line and string. Neither of them bridges the two, and bridging is the whole question.
The method
- Test every option against the first bracket on its own. dispute, spat and row all mean a quarrel. cord and tier do not.
- Test every option against the second bracket on its own. cord, tier and row can all mean a line. dispute and spat cannot.
- Only row appears in both lists.
- The two senses of row are said differently. That is allowed, and it is exactly why children miss it.
Family three: codes, letters and numbers
Seven types, and the family with the best return on practice. Every one has a handful of rules, all learnable in an afternoon, and the marks count the same as any others.
Letters for numbers
Five letters are given values and a calculation is written in letters. The order of operations is what is really being tested.
A = 6, B = 5, C = 10, D = 2, E = 30. Work out the answer to C + E ÷ B − A and give it as a letter.
The usual wrong route
Children read left to right: ten plus thirty is forty, divided by five is eight, minus six is two, and two is D, a real letter, so nothing warns them. Division and multiplication are done before addition and subtraction, whatever order they are written in.
The method
- Do the division first: E ÷ B is 30 ÷ 5, which is 6.
- The sum is now 10 + 6 − 6.
- Working left to right through the addition and subtraction: 10 + 6 is 16, and 16 − 6 is 10.
- The letter worth 10 is C. The left-to-right route lands on D, which is why this type catches children who are good at arithmetic: the wrong order still gives a whole number.
Alphabet analogies
Two letters change into two others by a rule, and the same rule is applied to a second pair. The alphabet is printed across the top of the page, and it should be used rather than recited.
CF is to FI as MP is to ? Options: OR, PR, PS, QT, SP.
The usual wrong route
Children count inclusively. Going C, D, E, F they count four letters and conclude the rule is four steps, which turns M into Q and P into T and produces QT. The step from C to F is three moves, not four letters.
The method
- Work out the move for each position separately. C to F is three forward. F to I is three forward.
- So both letters move on three.
- M plus three is P. P plus three is S.
- The answer is PS. QT is what inclusive counting gives, and it is the commonest wrong answer in this type.
Letter series
A run of letter pairs follows a rule and the child gives the next pair. The two positions almost always have separate rules.
Find the next pair in this series. BD FH JL NP ? Options: PR, QS, RT, ST, TR.
The usual wrong route
Children mix up the gap inside a pair with the step between pairs. Inside each pair the letters are two apart, so a child who uses two instead of four moves N to P and P to R and answers PR.
The method
- Read down the first letters only: B, F, J, N. Each is four on from the last.
- Read down the second letters only: D, H, L, P. Each is four on from the last.
- So the next pair is N plus four and P plus four.
- That is R and T: RT.
Letter cipher
A word and its coded form are given, and the rule is applied to a new word. The alphabet behaves as a loop: after Z it starts again at A.
If GARDEN is written in code as HBSEFO, how is WIZARD written in the same code? Options: VHYZQC, XJAASE, XJABSE, XJZBSE, YKBCTF.
The usual wrong route
The child reaches the Z, finds there is no letter after it, and either leaves the Z alone or stops and guesses. The alphabet wraps: the letter after Z is A.
The method
- Compare the two given words letter by letter. G to H is one forward, A to B is one forward, R to S, D to E, E to F, N to O. Every letter moves on one.
- Apply that to WIZARD. W becomes X, I becomes J.
- Z has nothing after it in the alphabet, so it wraps round to A.
- A becomes B, R becomes S, D becomes E. The code is XJABSE.
Shared number code
The codes are deliberately printed in a different order from the words, and one is missing. Matching them up is the question; substituting the digits afterwards is the easy part.
Three of these words are written in code, but not in the same order, and one word has no code. Find the code for LEAN. Words: LOAN LEAN TALE NOTE. Codes: 3975 4235 7294. Options: 3975, 4235, 7294, 7594, 7954.
The usual wrong route
Children assume the first code belongs to the first word. The question says the codes are not in the same order, and the whole task is working out which is which before a single digit is substituted.
The method
- Find a foothold. Two of the three codes end in the same digit, 5, and exactly two of the four words end in the same letter, E: TALE and NOTE. So E is 5, and those two codes belong to those two words.
- The remaining code, 7294, has no 5 anywhere, so its word has no E in it. That rules out LEAN and leaves LOAN, which also tells you LEAN is the word with no code. LOAN is 7294, so L = 7, O = 2, A = 9, N = 4.
- Split the other two. NOTE begins with N, which is 4, so NOTE is 4235 and T = 3. TALE must then be 3975, and it checks out: T = 3, A = 9, L = 7, E = 5.
- LEAN is L, E, A, N, which is 7, 5, 9, 4: 7594.
Number brackets
The middle number of each group is made from the two outside numbers by one rule, the same rule every time, and the last middle number is missing.
The middle number in each group is made from the two numbers beside it in the same way each time. Find the missing number. (4 [48] 12) (5 [27] 4) (8 [ ? ] 3). Options: 24, 27, 33, 36, 44.
The usual wrong route
The first group can be read two ways. Four plus twelve tripled is forty-eight, and four times twelve is also forty-eight. A child who settles the rule on the first group alone reads the last group as eight times three and marks twenty-four.
The method
- Try the simplest rules on the first group. 4 + 12 = 16, tripled is 48. 4 × 12 = 48. Both fit, so the first group cannot decide.
- Test both rules on the second group. 5 + 4 = 9, tripled is 27, which matches. 5 × 4 = 20, which does not.
- So the rule is add the two outside numbers and triple.
- 8 + 3 = 11, tripled is 33. The offered 24 is eight times three, the rule the second group killed.
Number series
A row of numbers with one place empty. The gap is not always at the end, and the row is often two series taking turns.
Find the missing number. 3, 30, 7, 26, 11, 22, 15, ? Options: 11, 17, 18, 19, 26.
The usual wrong route
Children read the row as a single series, fail to find one rule that fits, then carry on from the last number they can see and answer 19. Alternating numbers is one of the family’s standard shapes, so check for it before anything else.
The method
- The numbers rise and fall alternately, which is the signal for two series taking turns.
- Take every other number from the first: 3, 7, 11, 15. That series adds four each time.
- Take every other number from the second: 30, 26, 22. That series subtracts four each time.
- The gap is in the eighth place, which belongs to the second series. After 22 comes 18. The offered 19 is what continuing the first series gives.
Family four: sentences and logic
Only two types, but they take the longest and they are where the clock runs out. Do them last.
Shuffled sentences
A set of jumbled words makes one sensible sentence with exactly one word left over, and the child names the leftover.
These words make one sensible sentence, with one word left over. Which word is left over? book was my upstairs reading a were sister
The usual wrong route
Children build a sentence that sounds right and stop at the first one that works, without checking that no other word could have been left out instead. A shorter sentence that leaves two words over is not an answer.
The method
- Find the subject and the verb first. my sister is the subject.
- There are two verbs on offer, was and were, and only one of them can follow my sister. It is was.
- Build the rest around it: my sister was reading a book upstairs. That uses seven of the eight words.
- The leftover is were. Every other way of leaving a word out would need both was and were in the sentence, which is impossible.
Logic and deduction
A short set of facts fixes an arrangement and the child reads one detail off it. Every word of every clue is load bearing, and the clue fixing a position outright is the one to use first.
Five children ran a race. Dev finished last. Cara finished third. Ben finished immediately ahead of Cara. Amara did not finish first. Who finished fourth? Options: Amara, Ben, Cara, Dev, Elif.
The usual wrong route
Children read immediately ahead of as simply somewhere ahead of, or reverse it into immediately behind. Either reading puts Ben in the wrong place and everything after it moves. The word immediately is doing all the work.
The method
- Start with the clues that place someone outright. Dev is fifth. Cara is third.
- Ben is immediately ahead of Cara, so Ben is second.
- That leaves first and fourth for Amara and Elif. Amara did not finish first, so Amara is fourth and Elif is first.
- The order is Elif, Ben, Cara, Amara, Dev, and the child who finished fourth is Amara.
What do the boards actually publish?
Very little, and you should know that before you buy anything. GL Assessment is named as the provider on 119 of our 164 verified school records, more than every other provider put together, and it describes what verbal reasoning measures rather than which questions it sets: its practice-paper pages list processing verbal information and identifying patterns as what the tests assess, and its own FAQ says a verbal reasoning test identifies the ability to think logically about written information and use that to solve problems . Nowhere does it publish a list of types, and nowhere does it promise which ones will appear.
What it does publish is 10 hours of free familiarisation material, downloadable without registering, which shows the multiple-choice layout and examples of some question types. If you do one thing after reading this article, download that.
So any board-by-board table of question types has been inferred from papers rather than read from the board, and ours is no different: the twenty-two above are what our own bank is built around, not a published syllabus. What schools do publish is which subjects they test, and that varies more than parents expect. On Caistor Grammar School the entrance test is two verbal reasoning papers and nothing else, one written and one multiple choice , while other schools set no verbal reasoning at all. Before you spend a term on this, check which test your child will actually sit, and use the free test-format checker if your shortlist is not settled.
What should you do next for your child?
Start with family three. Codes, series, ciphers and number brackets are the fastest marks on the paper to win, because they are technique rather than knowledge, and a child who has met each rule a few times stops getting it wrong. Family one is next for the same reason.
Do not try to cram family two. Vocabulary moves at the speed of reading, so start it early and let it run in the background. If you are working out a timetable, our guide on when to begin preparing sets out how long the vocabulary half really takes.
Practise the instruction line as hard as the questions. Most of the traps above are not failures of reasoning: they are a child solving a slightly different puzzle from the one printed, usually because the instruction said two answers and they gave one, or said immediately and they read somewhere. In a timed paper that is worth more marks than any amount of extra vocabulary.
And keep the score in proportion. What a school sees is not a raw mark but a standardised age score, and what decides an offer is that score against the standard the school publishes, which is covered in our guide to qualifying scores and cut-offs.
Next step
Sample verbal reasoning questions, marked as your child answers, free and with no account. Better than reading about the types is meeting them.
Answer a few of these types nowCommon questions
How many verbal reasoning question types are there?
No provider publishes a number, so any figure you are given is somebody’s count rather than an official list. Our own question bank is built around twenty-two, grouped into four families. A single paper will not use all of them: the types arrive in blocks, each block introduced by its own instruction, and no board announces in advance which blocks a paper will contain.
Does GL Assessment publish a list of the types it sets?
No. GL describes what verbal reasoning measures, and it gives away free familiarisation material showing the multiple-choice layout and examples of some question types, but it publishes no list of types and no promise about which ones appear. Anyone who gives you a definitive board-by-board table has inferred it from papers rather than read it from the board.
Which types should my child practise first?
The letter and number types, because they are the ones that can be learned quickly and completely. A child who has never seen a letter cipher scores nothing on it; a child who has met a handful of them can usually do the lot. Vocabulary types improve too, but slowly, over months of reading rather than over a weekend.
Is verbal reasoning the same as English?
No, although they overlap. English tests comprehension, grammar, punctuation and writing. Verbal reasoning tests whether a child can find and apply a rule that is expressed in words and letters, and well over half of the types involve no reading comprehension at all. A strong reader can still lose marks on codes and series, which is why the two are practised separately.
Sources
- [1] GL Assessment 11+: FAQs checked 8 September 2026
- [2] GL Assessment 11+: Verbal Reasoning practice papers checked 8 September 2026
- [3] GL Assessment 11+: Free Materials checked 8 September 2026
- [4] Caistor Grammar School: Admissions Process checked 8 September 2026