How to solve verbal analogies
The bridge sentence
Name the relationship as a precise sentence before reading the options, and verbal analogies become a matching exercise.
Updated
GLOVE is to HAND — the amateur reads the options now. The trained solver first builds a bridge sentence: 'a glove is shaped to cover and protect a hand.' Then each option either completes the same sentence or dies. The bridge is the whole method.
The relationship inventory
Most analogies use one of about a dozen relations: part : whole · member : category · worker : tool · worker : product · worker : place · object : function · cause : effect · degree (mild : extreme) · opposites · young : adult · symbol : meaning · sequence (stage : next stage). Naming the relation type speeds the bridge.
Make the bridge specific
Weak bridge: 'a petal is part of a flower.' Strong bridge: 'a petal is one of the repeated units a flower head is made of.' The strong version kills 'stem' (a part, but not a repeated unit) instantly. When two options survive your bridge, the bridge is too loose — tighten it and re-test.
The strategy
- Cover the options. Build the bridge from the first pair alone.
- Say the bridge with the third word inserted: 'a helmet is shaped to cover and protect the ___.'
- Test every option in the blank. Eliminate all that fail; if two survive, tighten the bridge.
- Keep the direction: if A contains B, your answer pair must run container-to-contained the same way.
Common traps
- Same-topic distractors: WING for 'feather is to bird' — associated, but the bridge (outer covering) rejects it.
- Reversed-direction options.
- One-level-off categories: 'plant' when the bridge demands 'flower'.
- Degree jumps: pleased → overjoyed parallels annoyed → furious, not annoyed → cross.
Speed · ~25s/item: A tight bridge solves most items in 15–30 seconds. If you're re-reading options repeatedly, you skipped the bridge.
Try questions like this
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Questions people ask
How do you solve a verbal analogy?
State the link between the first pair as a precise sentence, then test each option in that sentence. Keep the direction: if the first word contains the second, the answer pair must too.
Do verbal analogies test vocabulary?
Partly. You need to know the words; the reasoning is in naming the relationship between them. That is why they count as verbal reasoning rather than pure logic.
How long should a verbal analogy take?
With a tight link sentence most take 15 to 30 seconds. If you keep re-reading the options, your sentence is too vague.
Will verbal analogies questions be on the free test?
Maybe. The free test gives verbal & logic 5 of its 20 questions, spread across 11 different question types, so any one test may or may not include this kind.