VR - Moving a Letter to Make New Words

Moving a Letter to Make New Words is a very simple form of anagrams – much simpler in fact, as only one letter is being moved, rather than the whole set.

Solving anagrams is a useful skill which children can learn by playing games such as Scrabble, doing cryptic crosswords, or playing home-spun word games of your own. It’s also great fun and a way to exercise your child’s brain without them knowing they are working!

How Are These Kind Of Questions Posed In The Exam?

Candidates are shown two words. They are then asked to move a letter from one of the words and place it into the other to make a new word while leaving a proper word.

For instance, we could take the letter ‘i’ from the word ‘fair’ (leaving the word ‘far’) and put it into the word ‘plan’ to make the word ‘plain’.

It’s much easier to show you than to explain, so here are some examples:

Example Question One

Find the letter which can be taken from the word on the left and put into the word on the right, leaving two proper words. You may not otherwise re-arrange the letters.

The removal of the letter ‘u’ from ‘house’ would leave us with the word ‘hose’. Transferring it to the word ‘pond’ would create the word ‘pound’.

Technique Tip

Your child will be using a pencil to complete the test. This can be very easily used to provide an aid to answering the question.

Place the tip of the pencil to cover the first letter of the word on the left and see whether the remaining letters create a word. If so, look at the word on the right and see whether or not the letter you’ve covered can be added to make a new word. If so, you’ve found the answer; if not, move the pencil along and cover the second letter of the word on the left and so on. Repeat until you find the answer.

Example Question Two

Find the letter which can be taken from the word on the left and put into the word on the right, leaving two proper words. You may not otherwise re-arrange the letters.

Ensure your child is using their pencil to cover the ‘h’ of ‘halve’ and let them see whether the remaining letters form a word. As they don’t, move onto the ‘a’.

After testing all the letters, you would find that the ‘l’ and the ‘v’ could both be taken out and leave words. ‘Have’ is a perfectly normal word and ‘hale’ is an unusual word which would seem very improbable as an answer in a test for children. Therefore, let’s try transferring the ‘l’. It could be put in to ‘boat’ to make ‘bloat’ which is also a word and ‘l’ is therefore the correct answer.

Technique Tip

If you have decided on one or more possible answers from the word on the left but can’t find where it fits into the word on the right, write out the possible combinations it would create. This will give a visual, rather than mental, image of the word. Sometimes the addition of the letter will change the sound of the word completely and that can be missed when you’re not able to see it written down.

Sample Tests

As we’ve seen, these types of question are very simple indeed. They will pose no problem at all for children who are used to similar word games. For those who are not, then we recommend that you practise with the four quizzes in this format on the Education Quizzes site.

Let your child try the questions on their own and, if they struggle, show them the technique we’ve taught you here.

You’ll find the quizzes in our Eleven Plus Verbal Reasoning section or, alternatively, you can follow these links:

Move a Letter 1

Move a Letter 2

Move a Letter 3

Move a Letter 4

In addition, I recommend that you get yourself a game of Scrabble, Upwords or something similar. The more adept your child is with rearranging letters, the easier they will find this and other parts of the Verbal Reasoning Exam. Good luck!