Letter Analogy - Change In The Order of Letter

Letter Analogy - Change in the order of letters

The English alphabet contains 26 letters, as given below :  A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

From A to M, the alphabet completes the first 13 letters that is the first half, while the second half starts from 14th letter that is it starts from N and ends at Z.

So, First Alphabetical Half is from A to M ⇒ 1 to 13 and Second Alphabetical Half is from N to Z ⇒ 14 to 26

Positions of letters from Right Hand Side (RHS) : In practising letter analogies, many a times we get questions in the tests that ask us the position of a letter from the right hand side i.e. backwards from Z to A. Although we are in a habit of counting from the left side of the alphabet & not from the right hand side of the alphabet. We are discussing this by taking an example and then we will make a mathematical formula.

Suppose there is a row of 8 persons in which a person is standing 5th from left. Let's find out his/her position from the right side.

We can see that the person who was standing fifth from the left hand side is placed fourth from the right side.

Now, let us suppose there are ‘n’ persons, the order can be horizontal (from left to right) or vertical (from top to bottom) and if the position of a person is given which is fourth from left then his position from right will be ( n + 1 - r ). Likewise this concept can also be used if their sitting order is vertical. Sum of positions from left and from right will always be (n+1). As given in the above mentioned example there are 8 persons, position of 5th person from left will be 4th ( 8 + 1 - 5 ) from right. Sum of both the positions is (4 + 5) = 9. If we are dealing with letters & we are given the position of any letter from either side, we need to add 1 more to the total number of letters & then subtract the position from left side to get its position from the right side.

For instance, let us find the position from right side of a letter, which is the 10th from left side.

This above table, from A to Z

This above table is from Z to A

As you can see, the 10th letter from the left hand side of the alphabet is J, which is 17th letter (26+1-10) from the right hand side of the alphabet. We did this operation by adding 1 to the total number of letters (26 + 1 = 27) and then subtracting 10 from it. This same logic is to be applied if we have given an initial right position and we need to find the position from the left side, or we have given initial position from top and we have to calculate position from bottom and vice-versa

Example 1 :  Complete the analogy:  KCAC : CACK : : XGMF : ?

(a) EMGF             (b) EGMX         (c) FMGX        (d) GMEF

Answer : (c)

Solution : The order of the letters of the first group is reversed to obtain the second group. Hence XGMF will become FMGX. Option 3 is correct.

Example 2 : Find the term "?":   EIGHTY : GIEYTH : : OUTPUT : ?

a)  TUOTUP             b) TUOUTP                 c) UTOPTU               d) UOTUPT

Answer : (a)

Solution : The first three letters and the last three letters of the first group are separately reversed in order to obtain the second group. Hence in the word OUTPUT, the first three letters are OUT. On reversing these letters, we get TUO. Similarly, the next three letters are PUT. On reversing these, we get TUP. The answer is TUOTUP. Option A is the correct answer.

Example 3 : RATIONAL is to RATNIOLA as TRIBAL is to  ___________ ?

(a) TIRLAB       (b) TRIALB     (c) TIRLBA      (d) TRILBA

Answer : (d)

Solution: The first three letters do not change positions. The remaining letters show a cyclic movement in groups of three. In the word TRIBAL, first three letters are unchanged. The next three letters are changed in the cyclic order. So BAL in the word TRIBAL will get LBA. So the complete answer is TRILBA.