Three letters, taken out in one piece: the missing word
The Short Answer
In this question, three letters in a row have been taken out of one word in a sentence, and those three letters spell a word of their own. The letters left behind stay exactly where they were, in the same order, so nothing is jumbled. Read the sentence for sense to find which word is broken, then work out what completes it.
What is a missing three-letter word question?
Your child is given a sentence in which one word has had three letters taken out — three consecutive letters, lifted out in one piece. Those three letters spell a word of their own, and that word is the answer.
The letters left behind do not move. They stay exactly where they were, in the same order. Nothing is jumbled, nothing is rearranged, and a child who starts shuffling letters has misread the type.
How do you teach the method?
Read the sentence for sense. The broken word is the one that stops the sentence meaning anything.
Look at what is left of that word and work out what it is trying to be. Say it aloud — the ear is genuinely useful here, unlike in compound words.
Try inserting three letters at each position in turn, not only at the end. The gap is often in the middle.
Check the three letters you have added spell a word. If they do not, the completion is wrong.
Can you show me a worked example?
Where do pupils lose marks?
Hunting instead of reading. A child scanning for a word that looks wrong will miss CAR inside CARPET, because CAR looks entirely right.
Assuming the gap is at the end. It is often in the middle, and STARTED with ART removed leaves STED, which does not obviously suggest where to insert.
Not checking that the three letters make a word. This is the free check the question gives you, and it is routinely skipped.
Try it yourself
In each sentence, one word has had three letters taken out in one piece. Find the three letters — they spell a word.
- The king drank from a silver GOB.
- She laid a new CAR in the hallway.
- Mars is the fourth PLA from the sun.
- The race STED at nine o'clock.
- The gardener cut a FER for the vase.
- LET — the word is GOBLET. Reading the sentence first is what tells you GOB is the broken word; a silver GOB is not a thing anyone drinks from.
- PET — CARPET. Notice CAR is itself a perfectly good word, which is what makes this one harder: the broken word does not have to look broken.
- NET — PLANET. Here PLA is obviously incomplete, so the sentence barely needs reading.
- ART — STARTED. The removed letters came from the middle of the word, not the end, which is the case children find hardest to spot.
- LOW — FLOWER. Again the missing letters sit inside the word rather than at either end.
How much practice does this type need at home?
A little, and it fits into ordinary reading. When you are reading with your child, occasionally cover three letters of a word with your thumb and ask what is missing. It takes ten seconds and it builds exactly the habit the question tests: seeing a word as a string of letters with a hole in it, rather than as a shape that is either right or wrong.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do the three letters have to spell a word?
Yes, and that is the answer to the question. The three letters removed always form a real three-letter word in their own right, which is a useful check: if your child works out a completion that leaves them with three letters that are not a word, they have the wrong completion.
How does my child find which word is broken?
By reading the sentence for meaning, not by hunting for something that looks wrong. Sometimes the broken word is obvious because what is left is not a word at all — PLA, FER. But sometimes what is left is a perfectly good word, as CAR is inside CARPET, and then only the sense of the sentence gives it away. Read first, hunt second.
Can the missing letters come from the middle of a word?
Yes, and that is the version children find hardest. STARTED with ART removed leaves STED, which looks like a typing error rather than a word with a hole in it. Encourage your child to try inserting three letters at each position rather than assuming the gap is at the end.
Is this the same as an anagram question?
No. Nothing is rearranged here. The remaining letters are in exactly the order they started in, and three letters have simply been lifted out in one piece. If your child starts shuffling letters they are answering a different type.
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.
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