One letter at a time: making words from a rule
The Short Answer
These questions give two words with a third in brackets between them, and ask your child to build the matching word for a second pair. The bracket word is made by taking letters from fixed positions in the outer words, so the job is to find where each letter came from and then copy those positions across. Write each position down rather than holding it in your head.
What is a making words question?
Your child is given two words with a third in brackets between them, and then a second pair with an empty bracket. The bracket word is built by taking letters from fixed positions in the outer words, and the job is to work out those positions and apply them again.
Nothing is changed. No letter is shifted through the alphabet and nothing is added. Letters are only selected, from particular places.
How do you teach the method?
Take the bracket letters one at a time. For each, find where it could have come from in the outer words, and write that position down.
If a letter appears in both outer words, write both possibilities down and carry them forward. Do not choose yet.
Apply the positions to the second pair. Where a position had two options, work through the combinations in order.
Check the answer is a real word and the same length as the first bracket word.
Can you show me a worked example?
Where do pupils lose marks?
Holding the positions in their head. Four positions is beyond what anyone recalls reliably under time pressure, and the fix is a pencil.
Guessing when a letter could have come from either word, rather than carrying both options.
And answering with a word of the wrong length, which is the easiest of all the errors to catch and the most frequently missed.
Try it yourself
Each question shows a completed example. Work out which positions the bracket letters came from, then apply the same rule to the second pair.
- CAMP (CAN) LION — using the same rule, what does BAKE ( ? ) BIRD give?
- LEAF (LEG) FROG — using the same rule, what does HAND ( ? ) DRUM give?
- RIDE (RENT) NEST — using the same rule, what does TREE ( ? ) NEST give?
- STONE (SENT) NEST — using the same rule, what does ROPE ( ? ) NEST give?
- BAD. The rule is 1st and 2nd of the first word, last of the second: C-A from CAMP and N from LION. Applied to BAKE and BIRD that gives B, A and D.
- HAM. Same rule again: L-E from LEAF and G from FROG, so H-A from HAND and M from DRUM.
- TENT. Here the rule is 1st and last of the first word, then 1st and last of the second: R-E from RIDE, N-T from NEST. TREE gives T-E, NEST gives N-T.
- RENT. Same rule as the previous question: S-E from STONE and N-T from NEST, so R-E from ROPE and N-T from NEST. Notice the second word is the same in both, which is a reminder to work the positions rather than to remember the answer.
How much practice does this type need at home?
Little and often, and the useful drill is the reverse of the question. Give your child two words and a rule — first of the first, third of the first, last of the second — and ask them to build the word. Doing it forwards a few times makes doing it backwards much quicker, because they stop seeing the bracket word as a puzzle and start seeing it as a recipe.
Free: a Verbal Reasoning workbook
Questions across the Verbal Reasoning question types, with the method printed at the top and full answers at the back. One workbook for the whole strand, not a sheet per question type.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do I do when a letter appears in both outer words?
Write both possibilities down and carry them forward. In RELY (YELL) TALE the E and the L each appear in both outer words, so several positions have two candidate sources. Do not guess between them at that stage. Work out the options for every position first, then go through the combinations — exactly one of them will make a real word, and that is your answer.
How many positions can there be?
Commonly three or four. Four-letter bracket words are usual by Year 5, and the letters typically come from both outer words rather than all from one. Four positions is more than anyone holds reliably in their head, which is why we insist on writing each one down.
How does my child know they have the right answer?
Two checks. The answer must be a real word, and it must be the same length as the first bracket word. If it is three letters when the bracket word had four, a position has been dropped somewhere.
Is this the same as a letter code question?
No, though they look similar on the page. A code question moves letters through the alphabet — A becomes D, and so on. This type does not change any letters at all; it only takes them from particular positions. Nothing is shifted, only selected.
Sources
- GL Assessment — 11+ familiarisation materials and question type descriptions Published 2025.
- Clever Clogs Academy — our own Year 4 and Year 5 lesson records, Winslow Published September 2025 to July 2026.
We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to GL Assessment or Buckinghamshire Council. Test arrangements change; always check the council's own pages for the current year's dates.
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