Identify the semantic relationship in one word pair.
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Practise it now
Full is to empty as happy is to…?
This exercise practises identify an analogy relation alongside its own main skill, Word Analogies.
It covers most of this skill rather than all of it.
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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.
What two pairs have in common
jumper goes with garment in the same way that cathedral goes with building. Which sentence says what that link is?
Work one pair of pairs through and see why part and kind need a test rather than a feeling.
They mean the opposite
The first is a part of the second
They mean nearly the same
The first is a kind of the second
Answer: The first is a kind of the second
How you get there
The link is that the first is a kind of the second, and it holds in both pairs: every jumper is a garment, but not every garment is a jumper, and every cathedral is a building, but not every building is a cathedral. Part and kind are the two that get mixed up, and one sentence tells them apart: say "every jumper is a garment". That is true here, so it is a kind. Name the link out loud before you look at the options, because the label you would have written is almost always among them and the ones you would not have written stop being tempting.
Why the other answers tempt
Two words that turn up together are not automatically a part and a whole: a bicycle and a road go together and neither is part of the other.
If they are stuck, say this
Say the link out loud in your own words first, using both pairs, then look for the sentence that says the same thing.
This engine’s own main skill is Word Analogies. It practises identify an analogy relation alongside it, and covers most of it rather than all.
Full is the opposite of empty, so happy is the opposite of sad. In an analogy the two pairs must be joined by exactly the same relationship: find the link in the first pair, then carry that link across.
What to say if they get stuck
Say the first pair out loud: "Full is the opposite of empty."
The same bridge has to carry "happy". These are opposites.
Where identify an analogy relation sits in the 11+
The 11+ does not test these skills in isolation, and practising one in the wrong order wastes the practice. These are the skills the curriculum map connects this one to.
Relational comparison transfers from semantic to symbolic pairs.
How identify an analogy relation differs from the skills beside it
The same exercise practises several skills, and telling them apart is often the difficulty rather than the exercise itself. On this page the skill is: identify the semantic relationship in one word pair, and it stops where excludes completing the second pair.
Choose the option most opposite in meaning to a target word. Excludes merely unrelated options.
Questions parents ask about identify an analogy relation
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.
Identify the semantic relationship in one word pair. It is one of 26 named verbal reasoning skills in the 11+, in the analogy strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.
Two words that turn up together are not automatically a part and a whole: a bicycle and a road go together and neither is part of the other. 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. Say the link out loud in your own words first, using both pairs, then look for the sentence that says the same thing.
Once it is secure, the skill map opens transfer an analogy relation. A relation must be identified before it can be transferred.
The skill map draws the line here: Excludes completing the second pair. 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 skill map connects it to classify a word relationship and complete a letter connection. Semantic classification can transfer into provider-style analogy analysis. Relational comparison transfers from semantic to symbolic pairs. Each of those has its own page here.
Use Word Bridge, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to identify an analogy relation, it runs in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.
Identify an analogy relation is the step before transfer an analogy relation
A free diagnostic maps the whole run of skills either side of this one, so practice follows the order the paper actually needs.
