Understanding Letter Analogies and Reasoning

Letter analogies test your ability to find the relationship between a pair of letters or groups of letters and apply that same relationship to another term to find the missing element. In this question, we are given the analogy BFI : AGK :: DGJ : ? We need to determine how BFI is related to AGK and then apply that same logic to DGJ to find the missing term.

Analyzing the First Pair: BFI to AGK

Let's look at the position of each letter in the English alphabet. We compare the first letter of BFI with the first letter of AGK, the second with the second, and so on.

Comparing the letters:

• First letter: B to A
• Second letter: F to G
• Third letter: I to K

Identifying the Pattern in Letter Shifts

Now, let's find the difference in the alphabetical position for each pair of letters. We can think of A as position 1, B as position 2, C as position 3, and so on.

The pattern of change in alphabetical position from BFI to AGK is -1, +1, +2 for the first, second, and third letters, respectively.

Applying the Pattern to the Second Pair: DGJ to ?

We will now apply the same pattern (-1, +1, +2) to the letters in DGJ to find the corresponding letters of the missing term.

Let's take each letter of DGJ and apply the respective shift:

• First letter: D (Position 4). Apply -1 shift. Position $4 - 1 = 3$. The letter at position 3 is C.
• Second letter: G (Position 7). Apply +1 shift. Position $7 + 1 = 8$. The letter at position 8 is H.
• Third letter: J (Position 10). Apply +2 shift. Position $10 + 2 = 12$. The letter at position 12 is L.

Determining the Missing Term

By applying the -1, +1, +2 pattern to DGJ, we get the letters C, H, and L.

Therefore, the missing term in the analogy DGJ : ? is CHL.

Step-by-Step Solution Summary

1. Analyze the relationship between the first pair of terms, BFI and AGK.
2. Determine the alphabetical position shift for each corresponding letter (B to A, F to G, I to K). The shifts are -1, +1, +2.
3. Apply the same pattern of shifts (-1, +1, +2) to the letters of the third term, DGJ.
4. For D (-1), we get C.
5. For G (+1), we get H.
6. For J (+2), we get L.
7. Combine the resulting letters to find the fourth term, which is CHL.

Revision Table: Letter Analogy Pattern

Additional Information: Types of Letter Analogies

Letter analogies can be based on various patterns, including:

• Position Shifts: Like in this question, where letters move forward or backward in the alphabet by a fixed number of positions or a varying pattern.
• Skipping Letters: Relationships based on skipping a specific number of letters between terms (e.g., A:C skipping B).
• Reverse Order: The second term might be the reverse of the first, possibly with shifts.
• Vowel/Consonant Patterns: The relationship might involve vowels and consonants.
• Combination of Patterns: Sometimes, analogies combine multiple types of relationships.

Practicing different types of letter analogies helps in quickly identifying the underlying logic during exams.