Missing letters
A word in a sentence has three letters missing, and those three letters make a little word of their own. Here's how to find it every time.
Chapter 1
What are missing letters questions?
Each question is a sentence with one word in capitals. Three letters that sat next to each other have been taken out of that word.
Those three letters spell a little word of their own, like TAP or HER. You pick the little word that goes back in the gap, so the long word is spelt right and the sentence makes sense.
The sentence. Your clue to what the long word is.
The capitals. The long word with three letters gone.
Some Missing Letters questions take out two letters from the hard part of a spelling instead. Chapter 5 shows how to answer those.
Chapter 4 covers Linking Letter, the other Rush game on this page. It tests the same skill: building real words from their parts.
"Use the SLER to join the pages together."
Which three letters are missing from the word in capitals?
- Option 1: TAG
- Option 2: LAD
- Option 3: TAP
- Option 4: PAD
A Verbal question from Rush, level 1.
Chapter 2
Solve it in 3 steps.
Here’s the question, one step at a time.
The question
"Use the SLER to join the pages together."
Which three letters are missing from the word in capitals?
- Option 1: TAG
- Option 2: LAD
- Option 3: TAP
- Option 4: PAD
A Verbal question from Rush, level 1.
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Step 1
Guess the whole word.
Read the sentence as if the capitals were a blank, and say what the word must be. What joins pages together? A stapler.
Use the S _ _ _ LER to join the pages together.
STAPLER
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Step 2
Find where the letters break.
Read the capitals from the left, and stop where they stop spelling your word. Stapler goes S, T… but the capitals go S, L. So the gap is straight after the S.
S L E RCheck the length: 4 capitals + 3 = STAPLER’s 7 letters.
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Step 3
Test every option.
Put each option in the gap and read the whole word. Usually only one makes a real word. If two do, the sentence decides.
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STAGLER, not a word -
SLADLER, not a word - STAPLER, a real word
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SPADLER, not a word
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Two mistakes the steps stop
| The mistake | Do this instead |
|---|---|
| Picking the one that looks right. In C _ _ _ IER, the options ASH, APE, ATE and ASK all start with A, so you can’t tell by looking. | Build the word with every option. Only ASH makes CASHIER. |
| Stopping at the first real word. In “A soft white F _ _ _ HER floated down from the bird”, ART makes FARTHER, which is a real word. | Read the sentence again with it. A soft white thing from a bird is a FEATHER, so it’s EAT. |
So it’s TAP. S + TAP + LER makes STAPLER, and you join pages with a stapler.
Remember: Guess, break, test.
Chapter 3
The catches.
The harder questions use these. Know them and they stop being catches.
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MANAGE
Spell it, don’t say it
The three letters often don’t sound like themselves. Say MANAGE: you never hear “nag”. ERA hides in EMERALD the same way. Test each option by its letters, not its sound.
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D O WC A R
The gap can be at either end
Rush always keeps a word’s first and last letters, but some papers take the three from the very start or the very end. If no break shows up inside the word, try the ends: WIN + DOW, CAR + PET.
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T E N D E R
No word at the break? Slide the gap
The beef was cooked until it was TER. Tender goes T, E, N, so the break looks like it’s after TE. But NDE isn’t a word. When a letter repeats next to the gap, slide one place: T + END + ER.
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The puppy was SC _ _ _ D of the thunder.
Your word doesn’t fit? Find another
You think “afraid”, but the capitals start SC. Think of another word that means the same, or another form of your word (run, ran, running). Here it’s SCARED: SC + ARE + D.
Stuck? Try the usual little words
These come up again and again. If the long word won’t come, try each one in the gap.
Chapter 4
Linking Letter.
One letter, four words. It’s the other Rush game on this page, and a regular in the exam.
Each pair is two word parts with a bracket between them. One letter goes in both brackets. It has to finish the word on its left and start the word on its right, in both pairs.
So one letter has to make four real words. That’s the whole trick: a wrong letter can make two or even three of them, so you check all four every time.
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Step 1
Start with the fussiest part.
Some parts take lots of letters: _AKE could be bake, cake, lake, make, take. HIL takes only two: HILL and HILT (a sword’s handle). So the answer must be L or T, and D and M are out already.
HILL or HILT
Only L or T can finish HIL.
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Step 2
Check all four words.
Put the letter in both brackets and read all four words. T makes TAKE, HILT and TAMP (to press down). But BALT isn’t a word, so T is out. Three out of four isn’t enough.
T makes three of the four words. Close, but out.
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The letter can double up
BAL already ends in L, and L is still the answer: BALL, HILL. Don’t rule a letter out because the word part already has it.
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Silent letters count
You don’t hear the K in KNOCK or KNIFE, but it’s there. Spell each word in your head instead of saying it, and silent letters stop catching you out.
So it’s L. L makes BALL, LAKE, HILL and LAMP. Every other letter fails at least one word.
Remember: One letter, four words.
Chapter 5: In the exam
Two more ways the exam asks it.
Rush’s Missing Letters game asks the first of these too. The steps you know still work.
Letter strings: the options all sound the same
Two or three letters are missing from the hard part of a word, and every option makes the same sound. Saying it won’t help, so find the word it comes from: that decides the spelling.
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Example
I love fruit, espe _ _ally strawberries.
The options are ti, sh, si and ci, and they all say “sh”. Especially comes from special, which is spelt with ci, so it’s ci.
especially
From a word ending in c: ci (music, musician). In t: ti (act, action). In d, de or se: si (extend, extension; decide, decision; confuse, confusion).
No options: write the letters in
Some papers don’t give options, so you write the three letters yourself. Guess and break work the same. There’s nothing to test, so spell your word slowly.
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Example
My little BROR is five.
Guess: a little brother. Break: the capitals go B, R, O, then R, but brother goes B, R, O, T. Spell it: after BRO come T, H, E. Write THE.
B R O T H E R
Chapter 6
Try it yourself.
Six real questions from Rush, easy to hard, 60 seconds on the clock.
Use the steps
- Guess the whole word.
- Find where the letters break.
- Test every option.
Remember: Guess, break, test.
For parents.
What parents ask us about missing letters.
Questions parents ask
How do you do missing three-letter word questions?
Read the sentence and say the whole word the capitals stand for. Find the point where the capitals stop spelling that word: the three letters go there. Then put each option in the gap and keep the one that makes a real word that fits the sentence.
What if my child can't think of the word?
Use the letters on the page. The capitals plus three give the length, and the ending often gives the type of word: -ATION is a thing, -ED is something that happened. Then try each option in the gap; usually only one makes anything that looks like English.
Are the missing letters always a real word?
In this question type, yes: they spell a word of their own, like ASH in CASHIER. That's a useful check on your answer. In the letter-string version on this page they aren't a word, just the tricky letters of a spelling.
What if the paper gives no options?
Some papers ask for the three letters to be written in. The method is the same, but guessing the whole word matters even more, because there's nothing to test. Practising with options builds the instinct for where the gap sits and which short words hide inside long ones.
Rush: 11+ Practice & KS2 SATsPractise missing letters in Rush.
- Missing Letters and Linking Letter as 100-second games, easy at first and harder as your child improves
- Every miss kept with the right answer and why
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