Miscellaneous: Pairing, Word Distances and Speed

This final block gathers the small, high-return items that round off Reasoning: dictionary-order arrangement, counting the letter gap between two letters of a word, and pairing questions. None needs theory, all reward a clean method, and together they contribute two to four marks in SBI Clerk. Because they are quick and self-contained, they are exactly the questions to bank early while your mind is fresh and the clock is kind. Treat this group as your warm-up bank: the methods are mechanical, the answers are unambiguous, and a candidate who has rehearsed them clears each in well under half a minute, converting them into some of the surest marks the whole Reasoning section has to offer.

Dictionary Order

To arrange words as in a dictionary, compare them letter by letter from the left: the word whose first differing letter is earlier in the alphabet comes first. If the opening letters match, move to the second letter, and so on. A shorter word that is otherwise identical to the start of a longer word comes first — 'car' before 'card'. Line the words up vertically and scan the first column, then only the ties.

Letter-Gap Counting Within a Word

A common question asks how many pairs of letters in a word have as many letters between them in the word as in the alphabet. Take each pair, count the letters between them in the word, count the gap in the alphabet, and mark the pair if the two counts match — checking forward and, when asked, backward order too. Work left to right and test adjacent-then-wider pairs systematically so none is missed. A tidy way is to number each letter's alphabet position above it first, so every comparison becomes a quick subtraction rather than a fresh count for each pair.

Letter-gap hit: (letters between them in the word) = (letters between them in the alphabet).

Pairing and Meaningful-Pair Questions

Pairing questions link items across two lists or ask which two elements share a stated relationship. List the given links as a small map, then test the option pairs against it. For meaningful-pair items — 'which two words are related as day is to night' — name the relationship as an opposite, a synonym or a part-to-whole link, and match only the pair that carries the same relationship, ignoring superficially attractive distractors. Writing the map down rather than holding it in your head is what keeps pairing questions fast, because the option that satisfies every stated link jumps out at a glance once the connections are visible on paper.

Solved Examples

Q1 (dictionary): Order 'bank, band, bat, bad'. Second letters all 'a'; third letters d, n, t, d — so 'bad, band, bank, bat'; 'bad' before 'band' as d precedes n. Result bad, band, bank, bat. Q2 (gap): In 'FROG', F and G have F..G with F5th-from... check pairs; F and H would match, here F to G is one apart in the alphabet — count matches give one such pair.

✗ Ordering words only by their first letter and guessing the ties  |  ✓ Comparing letter by letter, resolving each tie at the next column