Form one valid new word from a supplied base using the permitted letter operation.
Free to use and free to share. There is no sign-up, no score, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere.
Practise it now
Spin the reels until the three parts build the word in the definition, then pull the lever.
This exercise practises form a derived word alongside its own main skill, Prefixes and Suffixes.
Loading the interactive exercise. Nothing you do here is saved or scored.
A worked example
One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.
Lining the letters up before you decide
Add exactly one letter to EACH so that the result is still a real word. Which of these words can you make?
Work one base word through and see why every option being real is the point.
GECKO
BEACH
HORSE
MONEY
Answer: BEACH
How you get there
BEACH is EACH with one letter added and nothing else moved, which is exactly what the instruction allows. Every option here is a real word, so "is it a word" decides nothing: "GECKO" is real too, and it fails because you cannot get to it from EACH in a single step. Write the base above the option and compare them letter by letter, because that turns a guess into a count.
Why the other answers tempt
An option that starts and ends like the base can still be two changes away, and two changes is not one.
If they are stuck, say this
Write the base word out and put each option underneath it, lining the letters up. Only one option is a single permitted step away.
Spin the reels until the three parts build the word in the definition, then pull the lever.
This engine’s own main skill is Prefixes and Suffixes. It practises form a derived word alongside it.
Long words are built, not memorised. Take the root first, because it carries the meaning: appear is the picture of something coming into sight. Then read the prefix as an instruction to that root. un and dis both flip it, re sends it round again, mis says it went wrong. Finally the suffix sets the timing: ing for happening now, s for one person doing it, ment to turn it into a thing, and a blank to leave the plain verb. dis + appear + nothing gives disappear, the opposite of coming into sight. Build any unfamiliar word this way and you can usually work out what it means without being told.
What to say if they get stuck
Start with the root in the middle. Which of the four roots is closest to the meaning?
Now the prefix. Some flip a word to its opposite, some mean again, some mean badly.
The suffix reel has a blank on it. If the definition says "to ..." you usually want the blank.
Build the word unhappiness. Drag affixes onto the word - some will not stick.
This engine’s own main skill is Prefixes & Suffixes. It practises form a derived word alongside it.
Long words are rarely new words: they are small words wearing extra parts. "un-" flips the meaning to its opposite, and "-ness" turns a describing word into a naming word (an adjective into a noun). Split any unfamiliar word into root + affixes and you can usually work out what it means without ever having seen it before.
What to say if they get stuck
Prefixes clip onto the front. Which one turns a word into its opposite?
Once you have unhappy, you can keep going - suffixes still fit on the end.
When -ness joins a word ending in y, the y turns into an i: happy → happiness.
How form a derived word differs from the skills beside it
The same exercise practises one other skill, and telling them apart is often the difficulty rather than the exercise itself. On this page the skill is: form one valid new word from a supplied base using the permitted letter operation, and it stops where the operation is supplied; excludes compound joining, anagrams, and moving a letter between two words.
Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.
Form one valid new word from a supplied base using the permitted letter operation. It is one of 26 named verbal reasoning skills in the 11+, in the word strand, and this page carries 2 interactive exercises that practise it.
An option that starts and ends like the base can still be two changes away, and two changes is not one. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Write the base word out and put each option underneath it, lining the letters up. Only one option is a single permitted step away.
The skill map draws the line here: The operation is supplied; excludes compound joining, anagrams, and moving a letter between two words. A question past that line is testing a different named verbal reasoning skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
The word strand holds 9 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to form a derived word are move a letter between words, identify an impossible word formation and solve an anagram in context. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.
Use Affix Slot Machine and Word Morpher, embedded on this page. They are the exercises the skill map attaches to form a derived word, they run in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. Each also has its own link, so you can send one to a child without sending them anywhere else first.
Verbal reasoning is a set of question types, not a subject to revise
A free diagnostic works out which of the codes, analogies, word puzzles and logic types are already secure, and which are not.
