Shared letter questions hand your child a small bridge-building puzzle. Two pairs of word fragments are shown with a gap in the middle of each, and a single letter has to slot into all of them at once. That letter ends the left fragment and begins the right one, so in "CA ( ? ) EN" and "BU ( ? ) ANK" the letter T builds CAT and TEN, then BUT and TANK. Four real words from one letter.
This type belongs to the GL Assessment 11+ Verbal Reasoning paper and rotates with the related missing-letter questions, so it does not appear in every single paper. When it does, it comes as a block of the same format, answered A to E on a separate answer sheet, choosing from five candidate letters. Our research estimate, from analysing GL practice papers, is that letter-completion questions of this kind make up around 5 to 8 per cent of a paper when present. The single biggest source of marks lost here is settling for a letter that works on one pair but quietly fails on the other.
On this page your child practises the exact layout, with the fragments stacked over two lines just as GL prints them, and five single-letter options to choose between. Every explanation spells out all four finished words, reinforcing the rule that the chosen letter must complete every one of them.
The format is fixed, but the challenge varies with the words and the letter. GL does not publish a breakdown, so the points below are our research estimate of what makes a shared letter question harder or easier:
Difficulty rises from common short words completed by an obvious consonant, up to uncommon vocabulary and vowel answers where a strong wrong option completes one pair perfectly but breaks the other.
This family ignores meaning completely and works on letters. Hidden words find a word buried across two others, compound words join two words into one, move a letter shifts a single letter between words, missing letters restore letters taken out, and shared letter finds one letter that completes several words.
| Question type | What it tests | What it looks like | The classic mix-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared LetterThis page | Whether your child can find one letter that sits at the join of two word parts and completes four words at once. | Two pairs of word parts, each with a bracketed gap; one single letter ends the left part and begins the right part, making four real words. For example, "CA(?)EN" and "BU(?)ANK" both take "T", giving CAT and TEN, then BUT and TANK. | Treating it like missing letters and looking for three letters, when only one letter is shared across every word. |
| Hidden Words | Whether your child can find a small word hidden across the join between two side-by-side words. | A full sentence; the hidden word, usually four letters, straddles the end of one word and the start of the next. For example: "She left the plate amid the mess". | Treating it like missing letters and looking inside one word, instead of across the join between two neighbouring words. |
| Compound Words | Whether your child can join one whole word to another to make a single, real compound word. | Two groups of words; your child takes one from each so they join into one real word, left word first. For example, "grape" plus "fruit" makes "grapefruit". | Treating it like hidden words and searching for a buried word, instead of joining two whole words openly given. |
| Move a Letter | Whether your child can move one letter from one word to another so both become new, real words. | Two real words; take one letter out of the first and add it to the second so both stay real. For example, "place" and "at" become "lace" and "pat". | Treating it like missing letters and moving three letters, when only one letter may cross between the two words. |
| Missing Letters | Restoring three letters taken from a word, where the three removed letters also spell a small word. | A word with three letters removed and shown as a gap; those three letters must spell a word too. For example, "___SNIP" becomes "PARSNIP", where the missing letters spell "PAR". | Treating it like hidden words and scanning across two words, when the missing letters come out of one single word. |
Ask what the letters are doing. One letter jumping between two words is move a letter, one letter completing four word parts is shared letter, whole words joining is compound words, a word buried in a sentence is hidden words, and letters put back into a single word is missing letters.
Five questions drawn from PrepStep’s shared letter bank, spanning Foundation to Challenging. Tap “Show worked explanation” to see the full method after you’ve had a go. The correct answer is highlighted on each question so you can check immediately.
Find the letter that completes both pairs of words:
CA ( ? ) UN
FA ( ? ) OAD
The letter R completes both pairs: CAR + RUN, and FAR + ROAD. Tip: Look for common word endings (-ANK, -OOL, -EST) to help identify the starting letter of the right-hand word. ✓
Find the letter that completes both pairs of words:
CROW ( ? ) OISE
BROW ( ? ) EEDLE
The letter N completes both pairs: CROWN + NOISE, and BROWN + NEEDLE. Tip: Look for common word endings (-ANK, -OOL, -EST) to help identify the starting letter of the right-hand word. ✓
Find the letter that completes both pairs of words:
CLA ( ? ) EAR
SNA ( ? ) EST
The letter P completes both pairs: CLAP + PEAR, and SNAP + PEST. Tip: Look for common word endings (-ANK, -OOL, -EST) to help identify the starting letter of the right-hand word. ✓
Find the letter that completes both pairs of words:
ALAR ( ? ) USIC
CHAR ( ? ) EDAL
The letter M completes both pairs: ALARM + MUSIC, and CHARM + MEDAL. Tip: Look for common word endings (-ANK, -OOL, -EST) to help identify the starting letter of the right-hand word. ✓
Find the letter that completes both pairs of words:
TA ( ? ) AN
CA ( ? ) INE
The letter P completes both pairs: TAP + PAN, and CAP + PINE. Tip: Look for common word endings (-ANK, -OOL, -EST) to help identify the starting letter of the right-hand word. ✓
Common mistake 1 of 4
Checking only one pair before committing.
Tip: A letter that builds both words in the first pair can still fail the second. Insist your child confirms all four words every time, because the correct answer is the one letter that satisfies every fragment.
Common mistake 2 of 4
Overlooking vowel answers.
Tip: Children try T, S, N and R first and stop, but the answer is sometimes A, E, I, O or U. If no consonant works on all four words, your child should run through the vowels rather than assume they have misread the question.
Common mistake 3 of 4
Accepting a near-word under time pressure.
Tip: In a hurry a child may accept something that looks almost right but is not a real word. Encourage a quick mental check that each of the four results is a genuine English word before moving on.
Common mistake 4 of 4
Starting with the easiest fragment instead of the hardest.
Tip: The fastest route is to begin with the most restrictive fragment, the one where the fewest letters could possibly fit, and test that letter across all four words. Starting with an easy fragment lets too many candidates survive.
Every PrepStep 11+ question is original, written to mirror the style and difficulty of the GL Assessment 11+ and grounded in a library of real past-paper patterns, with a worked explanation for each one. PrepStep is built by Ben Jackson, its founder and a parent who has taken one child through the 11+ with another preparing now. Last reviewed: August 2026.
They show two pairs of word fragments with a gap in each, and your child finds the single letter that completes all four words at once. The letter ends the first fragment of a pair and begins the second, so "CA ( ? ) EN" with the letter T makes CAT and TEN. The same letter must work for both pairs.
Through multiple choice with five single-letter options (A to E) on a separate answer sheet. The fragments are usually printed on two stacked lines. This type rotates with missing-letter questions in GL papers, so it does not appear every time, but when it does it comes as a block of the same format.
A shared letter question uses one letter to complete two word pairs, creating four words. A missing letter question removes three consecutive letters from a single word, and those three letters must form a word of their own. They are related but distinct, so it helps your child to recognise which one they are looking at.
T, S, N and R complete the most word pairs and are worth trying first when a child is stuck. However, GL deliberately sets some questions where the answer is a less common consonant or a vowel, so trying the popular letters is a starting tactic, not a guarantee. Every answer still has to be checked against all four words.
The winning habit is to start with the most restrictive fragment and then verify all four words before choosing, and that habit grows with regular short practice. Free PrepStep practice presents the questions in the real stacked format with explanations that name all four finished words, so the check-everything routine becomes automatic.
They all work on letters rather than meaning, but the letters do different jobs. Hidden words asks your child to find a small word buried across the join between two words in a sentence. Compound words asks them to join two whole words into one real word. Missing letters asks them to restore letters taken out of a single word, where those removed letters also spell a word of their own. Same skill family, three different letter puzzles.
Explore the other GL Assessment verbal reasoning topics, each with free sample questions and worked explanations.
PrepStep has 125 shared letter questions in GL Assessment format: five options, instant feedback, and step-by-step explanations. Free to start.
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