Verbal Reasoning

11 plus Word-Number Codes questions

Updated 10 September 2026·Skill project: Word-Number Codes

Four words, three codes, and no clue about which goes with which. Your child matches them by their patterns, writes down what each letter is worth, and only then answers the question that was asked.

What a Word-Number Codes question looks like

A Word-Number Codes question in 11 plus verbal reasoning shows four short words and, underneath them, three number codes. Each letter stands for one digit, but the codes are jumbled and one word has no code at all, so the first job is deciding which code belongs to which word. Its near neighbour, Letter-Shift Codes, hands over a word and its code already paired and asks only what was done to each letter; here nothing is paired and the digits follow no pattern, so there is no alphabet to count along, only a key to build.

The words are four letters and the codes four digits. Half the questions give a word and ask for its code, half give a code and ask for the word. Five options either way.

The question. The words SEEN, NEST, TENS and SENT are shown, and under them the codes 3819, 9831 and 1883. Find the code for TEST. The options are 8919, 9189, 9819, 9891 and 9811.

The method. Start with the odd one out. SEEN has the same letter in its second and third places, and only one code repeats a digit in its second and third places: 1883. So SEEN is 1883, which makes S one, E eight and N three. NEST begins N, E, S, so its code begins three, eight, one, and only 3819 does. That gives T nine. Check the last: TENS should be nine, eight, three, one, and 9831 is exactly that, so SENT is the spare word. TEST is T, E, S, T, which is nine, eight, one, nine.

The answer. 9819.

Why a wrong option tempts. 9891 uses the same four digits, so a child with the key right can still write it. TEST repeats its first letter at the end, so the repeated nine belongs first and last; in 9891 it sits first and third, spelling T, E, T, S.

The question. The words BARN, BRAN, BEAN and BARE are shown, and under them the codes 2815, 2175 and 2178. Find the code for BANE. The options are 1258, 2158, 2258, 2358 and 2185.

The method. No word here has a doubled letter, so use the beginnings. All four words start with B and all three codes start with two, so B is two. Two codes, 2175 and 2178, share their first three digits, so they belong to the two words sharing their first three letters: BARN and BARE, both B, A, R. That fixes A as one and R as seven. The code left over, 2815, is BEAN or BRAN, and BRAN would need R second, which is seven, not the eight that is there. So 2815 is BEAN, making E eight and N five, and BRAN is the spare word. BANE is B, A, N, E, so two, one, five, eight.

The answer. 2158.

Why a wrong option tempts. 2185 has the right four digits with the last two swapped over, which reads B, A, E, N. That is what a right key and a hurried last step produce. The option 2258 tempts differently: it gives A the same digit as B, and no two letters here ever share a digit.

The question. The words WIND, DINE, DINS and DENS are shown, and under them the codes 1964, 5961 and 1264. Find the word that has the code 1962. The options are DING, PINE, DONE, DUNE and DINE.

The method. DINS and DENS are the same except for their second letter, so their codes must be the same except for their second digit: 1964 and 1264 fit, nothing else does. That gives D one, N six and S four, with I and E still to sort out. The code left over, 5961, has to be WIND, and it agrees: W five, I nine, N six, D one. So I is nine, DENS is 1264 and E is two. Read the code back through the key: one is D, nine is I, six is N, two is E.

The answer. DINE, the word that had no code.

Why a wrong option tempts. DING starts correctly, because one, nine, six really are D, I and N. But two is E, taken from DENS, and no digit here stands for G, so a word needing a G cannot be the answer.

How to answer it

Count what is there. Four words, three codes, jumbled, one word that ends up spare. Nothing is paired for you, so pair nothing by position.
Look for patterns before digits. Which word repeats a letter, which words begin the same, which are the same letters rearranged. Then find the codes with matching patterns.
Pair the most unusual pattern first and write the key down as you go: S is one, E is eight, N is three. Working in your head is where the marks go.
Test the key against every code, including ones you have not used. If a code cannot be made from it, a pairing is wrong, and it is quicker to find that now.
Answer the question actually asked: for a word, swap each letter for its digit, and for a code, each digit for its letter. Write it down, then look in the options.

Common mistakes

Pairing codes with words by position. The order is scrambled every time, and the spare word can be any of the four.
Right digits, wrong order. The commonest way to lose the mark with a correct key. TEST becomes 9891 instead of 9819 and BANE 2185 instead of 2158, both sitting in the options.
Giving two letters the same digit. Options like 2258, where A quietly takes B’s digit, catch a child who has stopped checking. One letter, one digit, throughout.
Using a letter that has no digit. The tempting wrong answer above needs a G, and no G appears anywhere in that question.
Assuming the spare word is the answer. Sometimes it is, often it is not: the answer may be a coded word, the spare word, or a word never shown. A pairing that suits one code can still be wrong, so check that all three fit at once.

How to practise 11 plus Word-Number Codes questions

Here the method is worth more than the mileage, because the thinking is the same every time and only the letters change. Ten worked slowly, with the key written out and every code checked, teach more than forty rushed ones. Mixing the two directions in one sitting helps, so your child has to notice which is being asked. 11+ Daily has a Word-Number Codes project among its verbal reasoning skills, laid out as it is in the eleven plus itself, with an explanation that names each pairing and the key it produces. The questions are original to 11+ Daily, nothing is a past paper and nothing is licensed from another publisher, and the bank is re-checked in rounds. It sits with the other codes and sequences puzzles on the 11 plus verbal reasoning page, and there is more on session length in our guide to how much 11 plus practice a child needs each day.

Questions parents ask

What is a Word-Number Codes question in the 11 plus?

It shows four short words and, under them, three number codes in a jumbled order. Every letter stands for one digit, but nothing is paired up and one of the four words has no code at all. The child matches codes to words by their patterns, writes out the letter-to-digit key, then either gives the code for a new word or says which word a code stands for. The answer is picked from five options.

How do you work out which code goes with which word?

Match patterns rather than guess. A word with a doubled letter must go with the code that repeats a digit in the same two places. Words that begin with the same letters must go with codes that begin with the same digits, and words made of the same letters in a different order must go with codes made of the same digits in a different order. Fix one pairing, write down the letters it gives you, then check that key against the codes still unmatched.

Why are there four words but only three codes?

The spare word is the difficulty. If every word had a code, the pairing would often fall out of the lengths and the repeats alone, so one word is left uncoded to make the child test each possible pairing against the whole set. The spare word is not the answer by default: sometimes the answer is that word, sometimes another word on the screen, and sometimes a word that is not shown at all.

How is this different from letter shift codes?

A letter shift question gives a word and its code already paired and asks what was done to each letter, such as moving every letter two places along the alphabet. In a Word-Number Codes question nothing is paired, and the digits follow no pattern at all, so there is nothing to count along. The work is matching codes to words and building a key, and the key only holds good inside that one question.

Why does my child build the right key and still get the answer wrong?

Usually the letters go in the wrong order at the last step. A word like TEST repeats its first letter at the end, so its code must repeat that digit first and last, and an option with the same digits arranged the other way is always among the five. Writing the answer down before reading the options prevents most of it.

Practise Word-Number Codes in 11+ Daily

Word-Number Codes is one of the 78 skill projects in 11+ Daily. The Today screen brings it round when it is the right thing to revise, and a wrong answer comes back in a later session until it is right. 14-day free trial, no card needed.

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