Practice Verbal Analogies questions for the Cognitive Abilities Test — Grade 3 (Level 9). Every question includes a full explanation of why the correct answer is right and why the tempting distractors are wrong.
28 questions available · medium difficulty · CogAT Grade 3 · Free, no registration required
What Verbal Analogies measures
A pair of words is given that relate in some way, then a third word, and the child picks the word standing in the same relationship to it. It measures verbal reasoning rather than vocabulary - though a word the child has never met will stop them regardless, which is why reading matters more here than drilling.
What a grade 3 verbal analogies question looks like
Two words joined by an arrow or by 'is to', then a third word and a blank, with four or five choices. The relationships are concrete at this level: a thing and its part, a thing and where it lives, a thing and what it does, or a word and its opposite.
At level 9 — grade 3
Level 9 relationships are concrete and the vocabulary sits within ordinary third-grade reading. Almost every mark lost here goes to the same error - answering with a word associated with the third word rather than one in the matching relationship - which makes the sentence habit unusually valuable at this grade.
Where children go wrong
Picking a word that just goes with the third word
This is the dominant error. Given cat is to kitten as dog is to blank, a child may answer bark or bone - both connected to dog, neither in the relationship the first pair established. The question is never what goes with the word.
Ignoring the direction
Big is to small is not the same as small is to big. If the first pair runs large to small the answer must too, and reversing it produces a word that is genuinely related and genuinely wrong. Those appear among the choices deliberately.
Not knowing one of the words
Unlike the reasoning traps this one has no technique behind it. If the vocabulary is missing the item is lost, which is why wide reading does more for this subtest over months than any amount of practice does over a week.
How to practise this at home
Build the sentence habit: 'a kitten is a baby cat, so a blank is a baby dog'. Saying the relationship as a full sentence and then reading each option into it makes the wrong-but-related choices sound wrong, which is exactly what a child at this level cannot yet feel. Beyond that the highest-return activity is simply reading widely - most missed items at this level are vocabulary, not reasoning.
Common questions about Verbal Analogies
Is this a vocabulary test?
Not by design - it tests reasoning about relationships. But a word your child does not know will cost the item regardless of how good the reasoning is, so vocabulary sets a ceiling on the score.
What relationships come up most?
At this level: part and whole, object and its use, animal and its home or young, and opposites. Naming the relationship type aloud is a useful habit even when the answer is already obvious.
How can I help with vocabulary quickly?
Honestly, you cannot. Reading is what moves it and it moves over months. Anyone selling a word list that raises a CogAT verbal score in a fortnight is selling something.
10 example questions with full explanations. Use the interactive practice above to work through the complete set.
Question 1easy
petal → flower :: page → ?
- A.book✓
- B.read
- C.paper
- D.cover
Correct answer: A
A petal is one part of a whole flower, so the second pair needs a part and the whole it belongs to.Bpage is one part of a whole book, which makes A correct. 'Read' is what you do with a page, not a whole it belongs to. 'Paper' is what a page is made of, which is a material relationship rather than a part-to-whole one. 'Cover' is the tempting wrong answer because it is also part of a book — but it is another part, not the whole.
Question 2medium
scissors → cut :: broom → ?
- A.handle
- B.sweep✓
- C.kitchen
- D.floor
Correct answer: B
Scissors are the tool and cutting is the job they do, so the second pair needs a tool and its job.Abroom is used to sweep, making B correct. 'Floor' is the thing a broom is used on, not the action. 'Handle' is a part of a broom. 'Kitchen' is a place where a broom might be kept. Only 'sweep' names what the tool actually does.
Question 3easy
bird → nest :: bee → ?
- A.honey
- B.fly
- C.sting
- D.hive✓
Correct answer: D
A nest is where a bird lives, so the second pair needs an animal and the place it lives. Bees live in a hive, making D correct. 'Honey' is what a bee makes, not where it lives. 'Fly' and 'sting' are both things a bee does. Only 'hive' names a home.
Question 4easy
hot → cold :: day → ?
- A.night✓
- B.sun
- C.light
- D.morning
Correct answer: A
Hot and cold are opposites, so the second pair must be opposites too. Night is the opposite of day, making A correct. 'Morning' is a part of the day rather than its opposite. 'Sun' and 'light' are both things you connect with daytime, but connected is not the same as opposite.
Question 5hard
big → huge :: small → ?
- A.thin
- B.tiny✓
- C.little
- D.large
Correct answer: B
Huge does not just mean big — it means big taken further. So the second pair needs a word that takes 'small' further in the same way. 'Tiny' means very small, making B correct. 'Little' is the trap: it means the same as small rather than a stronger version of it. 'Large' is the opposite of small, and 'thin' describes a different quality altogether.
Question 6medium
wheel → car :: wing → ?
- A.fly
- B.feather
- C.airplane✓
- D.sky
Correct answer: C
A wheel is one part of a whole car, so the answer must be a whole thing that has wings as parts. An airplane has wings, making C correct. 'Fly' is what wings let something do. 'Feather' is a smaller part of a wing, not the whole. 'Sky' is where a winged thing travels, not what it is part of.
Question 7easy
book → page :: tree → ?
- A.forest
- B.green
- C.tall
- D.leaf✓
Correct answer: D
A book is the whole thing and a page is one part inside it, so the answer must be a part of a tree.Aleaf is part of a tree, making D correct.A'forest' is what many trees make together, so it is bigger than a tree rather than part of one. 'Green' and 'tall' describe what a tree is like instead of naming a piece of it.
Question 8medium
robin → bird :: rose → ?
- A.flower✓
- B.thorn
- C.red
- D.garden
Correct answer: A
A robin is one kind of bird, so the answer must be the larger group a rose belongs to.Brose is a kind of flower, making A correct.B'thorn' is a part of a rose rather than a group it belongs to. 'Red' is a colour many roses are, and a 'garden' is a place roses grow, but neither one is the kind of thing a rose is.
Question 9medium
rain → puddle :: fire → ?
Correct answer: B
Rain is what happens first and a puddle is what it leaves behind, so the answer must be what a fire leaves behind.Bfire leaves ash, making B correct. 'Hot' describes what a fire is like rather than what it leaves. 'Wood' is what a fire burns and 'match' is what starts one, so both come before the fire instead of after it.
Question 10easy
begin → start :: quick → ?
Correct answer: C
Begin and start mean the same thing, so the answer must mean the same as quick. 'Fast' means quick, making C correct. 'Slow' is the opposite of quick rather than a match for it. 'Run' is something you can do quickly but is not what quick means, and 'late' describes time without meaning quick at all.