What does a child have to do to decode a letter-word code in the 11+?

Infer a positional substitution rule and apply it to one new word. It is one of 26 named verbal reasoning skills in the 11+, in the code strand, and this page carries 2 interactive exercises that practise it.

What is the trap in an 11+ decode a letter-word code question?

Stepping back past A carries on from Z, so an early letter can still decode to a late 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.

What can I say if my child is stuck on decode a letter-word code?

Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Work out how far W has to step back to reach T, then step every letter of ORJ back by that same amount.

What is not part of decode a letter-word code in the 11+?

The skill map draws the line here: One consistent encoding rule. 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.

Which other 11+ skills should we practise alongside decode a letter-word code?

The code strand holds 5 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to decode a letter-word code are follow alternating code rules, apply a letter shift and apply mirrored alphabet pairing. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.

How can my child practise decode a letter-word code for free?

Use Code Wheel and Break the code FHVW, embedded on this page. They are the exercises the skill map attaches to decode a letter-word code, 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 · Code

Decode a letter-word code

Infer a positional substitution rule and apply it to one new word.

Practise it now

Work out the secret turn, then code the word MAP.

This exercise practises decode a letter-word code alongside its own main skill, Codes & Ciphers.

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.

Turning a code back into a word

Decode the second code by unwinding the same shift shown in the first pair.

AWHD

BTEA

CORJ

Answer: LOG

How you get there

WHD becomes TEA because each coded letter steps 3 places back through the alphabet, and the same rule turns ORJ into LOG. Every option is a real word, so only working the shift back gives the answer.

Why the other answers tempt

Stepping back past A carries on from Z, so an early letter can still decode to a late one.

If they are stuck, say this

Work out how far W has to step back to reach T, then step every letter of ORJ back by that same amount.

Now do it live in Code Wheel

Kitchen-table script for parents

Try this together

A friendly mini script for the breakfast table, school run or a quiet two minutes. Read it aloud as written, or make it your own.

Ready? Let's have a go at Decode a letter-word code together. Take a look at the picture. Here is what matters: WHD is to TEA as ORJ is to what? Analogy: WHD is to TEA as ORJ is to what? Here comes the question: Decode the second code by unwinding the same shift shown in the first pair. Before we race ahead, let us choose one good first step. Here is a helpful clue: Work out how far W has to step back to reach T, then step every letter of ORJ back by that same amount. Nice work. Now let us follow the thinking: WHD becomes TEA because each coded letter steps 3 places back through the alphabet, and the same rule turns ORJ into LOG. So our answer is: LOG. There is one sneaky trap to watch for: Stepping back past A carries on from Z, so an early letter can still decode to a late one. Can you show me that first move again in your own words? Brilliant. No rush; we are practising a method you can reuse, not trying to win a speed contest.

How each of these 2 exercises teaches it

Code Wheel

Work out the secret turn, then code the word MAP.

This engine’s own main skill is Codes & Ciphers. It practises decode a letter-word code alongside it.

Every letter moved the same amount: 3 steps forwards around the alphabet. That is why even one of the example cards is enough to give the whole secret away - once you know K → N, every other letter follows. To code a word you just repeat that one turn on each letter, and when you run off the end of the alphabet you wrap back round to the start, which is exactly what the wheel does for you.

What to say if they get stuck

Turn the outer ring until KIT lines up with NLW. The example cards glow when it is right.
Look at just one letter: K became N. How many steps around the alphabet is that?

Open Code Wheel on its own page to share it

Break the code FHVW

COULD became XLFOW. The message came back as FHVW. Use the same code to work out the real word.

This engine’s own main skill is Applying a mirror alphabet code. It practises decode a letter-word code alongside it, and covers most of it rather than all.

In a mirror code the alphabet is folded in half: A pairs with Z, B with Y, and on inwards until M pairs with N. That is why USED and FHVW go together, and why the same fold turns the code back into the word. Two things make this fast. The first is that the positions of a pair always add up to 27, so a letter at position 7 pairs with the letter at position 20 without any counting along. The second is that the letters have very different costs. A, Z, M and N are free because they sit on a landmark, while U sits several steps from every landmark there is, and that is the letter worth checking twice. A mirror code is also its own undoing, so there is no separate method for reading a message and writing one. Whatever you do to a letter, doing it again brings the letter back.

What to say if they get stuck

Write the alphabet forwards, then write it backwards underneath so A sits over Z and B sits over Y. Every letter now has a partner.
Counting works from either end. U is the 21st letter from the start, so its partner is the 21st letter from the end.
The mirror undoes itself. Pairing up a coded letter gives you the real one, exactly the same way round.

Open Break the code FHVW on its own page to share it

How decode a letter-word code 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: infer a positional substitution rule and apply it to one new word, and it stops where one consistent encoding rule.

Locate an alphabet position
Translate between a letter and its ordinal alphabet position. One direct position, with direction stated.
Apply a letter shift
Apply one positional alphabet shift, including wrap-around when stated. Excludes alternating multi-rule sequences.
Apply mirrored alphabet pairing
Map letters through a stated or inferred reversed-alphabet pairing. One fixed involutive mapping.

Related verbal reasoning skills

Apply a number code ruleApply one arithmetic mapping to a letter or number code.
Follow alternating code rulesContinue a code whose two explicit rules alternate.

All verbal reasoning 11+ skills

Questions parents ask about decode a letter-word code

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.

: Infer a positional substitution rule and apply it to one new word. It is one of 26 named verbal reasoning skills in the 11+, in the code strand, and this page carries 2 interactive exercises that practise it.
: Stepping back past A carries on from Z, so an early letter can still decode to a late 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. Work out how far W has to step back to reach T, then step every letter of ORJ back by that same amount.
: The skill map draws the line here: One consistent encoding rule. 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 code strand holds 5 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to decode a letter-word code are follow alternating code rules, apply a letter shift and apply mirrored alphabet pairing. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.
: Use Code Wheel and Break the code FHVW, embedded on this page. They are the exercises the skill map attaches to decode a letter-word code, 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.

Start the free 11+ diagnostic