Kitten is to cat as puppy is to what? Picture and word analogies on babies, homes, parts, jobs, opposites, groups and stronger words, with two-step links at the top. Six levels.
An analogy says that two pairs of words are linked in the same way. Kitten is to cat as puppy is to dog: in each pair, the first word is the baby and the second is the grown-up. To solve one, a child first names the link in the first pair, and then applies it to the third word. That is the skill this game builds, which is spotting a relationship and carrying it over to something new. It is the kind of question that appears in verbal reasoning tests for gifted programs and in children's thinking contests. Each puzzle shows the words as a strip with an empty box where one is missing, and the whole analogy can be read aloud with the speaker button, so a child who cannot read every word can still play. A wrong tap says try again, a right answer earns a star, and a short explanation names the link.
Level 1, Babies and homes, shows pictures with the word written under each one: baby to grown-up (puppy and dog, caterpillar and butterfly, boy and man) and animal to home (dog and kennel, bird and nest). A home here means a place an animal or a person builds or digs for it, such as a kennel, a hive or a burrow, never a wide habitat such as water or a desert. Level 2, Parts and jobs, has part to whole (wheel and car, toe and foot), tool to worker (stethoscope and doctor, tractor and farmer) and what a thing is used for (pen and write, ear and hear). Level 3, Opposites and groups, has opposites (hot and cold, in and out) and members of a group (apple and fruit, red and color), with four choices. Level 4, Stronger words, adds big is to huge as small is to tiny, and runs some links backwards, such as dog is to puppy as cat is to kitten. Level 5, Missing word, takes the pictures away and mixes all eight kinds of link, and any one of the four words can be the missing one, as in puppy is to dog as kitten is to what, or what is to dog as kitten is to cat. Level 6, Hard links, has two kinds of puzzle. One asks for puppy is to kennel as piglet is to sty: the child goes from puppy to dog and then to where a dog lives, and does the same for piglet. The other shows a pair such as puppy and dog and asks which of four pairs goes together the same way, in the same order. The wrong pairs are the same link turned round, such as cat and kitten, and pairs from other kinds of link, such as dog and kennel.
The word lists were written for this game: 13 baby and grown-up pairs, 10 animal and home pairs, 9 part and whole pairs, 10 tool and worker pairs, 14 use pairs, 11 group pairs, 18 opposite pairs and 15 stronger-word pairs, and 8 two-step chains. In every list a word is on the left of at most one pair and on the right of at most one pair, and the tests check that. That alone does not make an answer unique, because some words have a second meaning: a leaf is part of a tree, but also a sheet in a book, and a rabbit lives in a burrow, but a desert rabbit lives in a desert. So pairs with a second reading that could be argued were taken out (leaf and tree, camel and desert, calf and cow, chick and hen), animals that can each be said to live in a nest, a hill, a burrow or a den are never offered together, and a list of words that are close in meaning, such as out and off, keeps a second defensible word from being a wrong choice. The tests check every puzzle against the lists and against a separate list of second readings found by hand. They cannot find every one, so a parent who spots an analogy with two good answers is welcome to tell us. A common trap is built in on levels 3 to 5: the matching word from the other pair is often one of the choices, for example cat, which is tempting but wrong for puppy.
In the default mode the game moves up a level after three right answers in a row and down after two misses in a row. A child or parent can also pick any level. Today's 5 is a set of five puzzles made from the date on your device. Print makes a worksheet of 4, 6 or 8 new analogies on Letter or A4 paper, with a name line and an answer key on the last page. Pictures print in black and white, and each word is also written under its picture.
It does not teach the words themselves, so a child who has never heard of a fawn or a joey may need a parent to say what they are. It covers eight kinds of link, not every kind. It has no analogies about feelings, sounds or time. Some links depend on common knowledge, such as where a rabbit lives, and a few animals or places could be argued the other way, so the lists keep only the clearest ones. The speaker button uses the voice built into your browser, so how a word sounds depends on the device. Nothing about your child is uploaded: stars and the level stay in this browser on this device.
It is written for ages 5 to 8. Level 1 uses pictures such as puppy, dog and kitten, with three choices. Level 6 asks for two links in a row, or for the pair that matches in the same order, which is a real stretch for a child of 7.
Levels 1 to 4 show pictures, and the speaker button reads the whole analogy and the choices aloud. Level 5 and 6 have no pictures, so a parent should read the words.
Each list links a word to just one other word. Kitten is linked only to cat, so cat is the only answer for kitten. A word that means nearly the same as the right answer, such as big when the answer is huge, is never offered as a wrong choice, and neither is a word that can be argued as a second answer, such as a nest when the answer for a chicken is a coop. The tests check this, but they cannot find every second reading, so tell us if you find one.
It uses two links in a row. Puppy is to kennel: a puppy grows up into a dog, and a dog lives in a kennel. So piglet is to sty, because a piglet grows up into a pig that lives in a sty. There are 8 such chains.
Yes. Print makes 4, 6 or 8 new analogies on Letter or A4 paper, with the answers on the last page. Each word is written under its picture, so the page works in black and white.
No. The game runs in your browser, and nothing about your child is uploaded. Stars and the level are kept in this browser on this device. The page counts visits with Google Analytics, never answers.