What should come in place of the question mark (?) in the given series based on the English alphabetical order?
FAT ZUN TOH NIB ?

Question

What should come in place of the question mark (?) in the given series based on the English alphabetical order? FAT ZUN TOH NIB ?

Prepp Team · Accepted Answer

Series Analysis: FAT ZUN TOH NIB

The question presents a series of three-letter words: FAT, ZUN, TOH, NIB, and asks for the next term in the sequence. We need to identify the pattern governing this alphabetical series to determine the missing word.

Understanding the Letter Positions

To find the pattern, let's represent each letter by its position in the English alphabet (A=1, B=2, ..., Z=26).

Let's list the terms and their corresponding letter positions:

Term	Letters	Positions
1	FAT	F(6), A(1), T(20)
2	ZUN	Z(26), U(21), N(14)
3	TOH	T(20), O(15), H(8)
4	NIB	N(14), I(9), B(2)
5	?	?

Identifying the Letter Pattern

Now, let's examine the change in position for each letter across consecutive terms.

Pattern for the First Letter:

F (6) to Z (26): The change is $26 - 6 = 20$. Alternatively, considering wrap-around, it's a decrease of 6 ($6 - 6 = 0$, which corresponds to Z=26).
Z (26) to T (20): The change is $20 - 26 = -6$.
T (20) to N (14): The change is $14 - 20 = -6$.
N (14) to ?: The expected change is $-6$.

The pattern for the first letter is subtracting 6 from the current letter's position (modulo 26).

Pattern for the Second Letter:

A (1) to U (21): The change is $21 - 1 = 20$. Alternatively, it's a decrease of 6 ($1 - 6 = -5$, which corresponds to 21).
U (21) to O (15): The change is $15 - 21 = -6$.
O (15) to I (9): The change is $9 - 15 = -6$.
I (9) to ?: The expected change is $-6$.

The pattern for the second letter is also subtracting 6 from the current letter's position (modulo 26).

Pattern for the Third Letter:

T (20) to N (14): The change is $14 - 20 = -6$.
N (14) to H (8): The change is $8 - 14 = -6$.
H (8) to B (2): The change is $2 - 8 = -6$.
B (2) to ?: The expected change is $-6$.

The pattern for the third letter is consistently subtracting 6 from the current letter's position (modulo 26).

Deriving the Missing Term HCV

Since the pattern of subtracting 6 holds for all three positions, we apply it to the last known term, NIB.

The positions for NIB are N(14), I(9), B(2).

First letter: Apply $-6$ to N(14). $14 - 6 = 8$. The 8th letter is H.
Second letter: Apply $-6$ to I(9). $9 - 6 = 3$. The 3rd letter is C.
Third letter: Apply $-6$ to B(2). $2 - 6 = -4$. To handle wrap-around, we add 26: $-4 + 26 = 22$. The 22nd letter is V.

Combining these letters, the missing term is HCV.