11 plus Fill the Gap questions

What a Fill the Gap question looks like

Fill the Gap is one of the grammar formats in 11 plus English. Each question is a single sentence with one piece taken out of it, and five options labelled A to E for what belongs in the space. Only one of them puts the sentence back together correctly. The five options are nearly always five versions of the same choice, so a child is not being asked what the sentence means: they are being asked which form belongs in it. That is what separates it from Sentence Grammar, which hands a child a complete, correct sentence and asks them to name a part of it, while Fill the Gap removes a piece and asks them to supply the right one.

The range is wider than the name suggests. Alongside the familiar verb agreement questions there are tenses and time sequences, modal forms such as should have and had better, relative pronouns, pronouns after prepositions, a or an chosen by sound, quantity words such as fewer and less, prepositions in fixed pairs, phrasal verbs, joining words such as although and despite, adjective order, adverb placement, apostrophes and contractions. Worth knowing too: the answer is often a short phrase rather than one word, because forms like had better not and would have caught need more than one word to be right.

Example one

The list of absent pupils ___ on the office wall. Options: are, were, have, is, be

Ask who or what the sentence is really about. It is not the pupils. It is the list, and there is one list, so the sentence needs is. A good test is to cover the middle: “The list … on the office wall” leaves only one sensible choice.

The answer is is.

Are is the option that tempts, because pupils is the word sitting right next to the gap and the ear takes its lead from whatever it heard last. The extra words about the pupils only describe the list. They do not change what the sentence is about.

Example two

You really ___ told me about the change of plan. Options: should of, should have, would of, must of, could of

Four of these five are not real English at all. Should of, would of, must of and could of are only ways of spelling what should’ve sounds like when it is said quickly. Once they are crossed off, one option is left standing.

The answer is should have.

Should of is the one that catches children, and it catches them precisely because it sounds correct when read aloud. That is the trap: the ear cannot tell should’ve from should of, so this question has to be decided with the eye instead.

Example three

___ she was tired, she finished her homework before bed. Options: Despite, In spite, However, Although, Unless

Look at what comes straight after the gap. It is a whole idea with its own doing word: she was tired. Although is the word that goes in front of a whole idea like that.

The answer is Although.

Despite is the tempting one, and its meaning is perfectly right. What rules it out is the shape of what follows: despite needs a naming phrase, as in “Despite the rain” or “Despite being tired”, not a whole idea. In spite always needs of after it, however would need a full stop or semicolon in front of it, and unless turns the meaning round.

How to answer it

1. Read the whole sentence to the end before looking at the options, gap included. The proof is very often on the far side of the gap: last summer, and sure enough it was, she never did.
2. Work out who or what the sentence is really about, and when it happens. Those two answers settle most of these questions on their own.
3. Read each option into the gap and say the finished sentence in your head. Cross off anything that is not a real English form, such as should of, gooder, must had or enough warm. Two or three usually disappear at this step.
4. Decide between the survivors on meaning and on what comes after the gap, never on which one sounds smoothest. Sounding right is what the wrong options are built to do.
5. Read the completed sentence back one last time. If any other part of it now clashes, the choice was wrong.

Common mistakes

• Agreeing the verb with the nearest word instead of the real subject. A box of chocolates, the list of absent pupils, each of the runners. All three are singular, and all three have a plural sitting temptingly next to the gap.
• Writing of where have belongs. Should of, could of, would of, must of and might of all appear as wrong options, because they are exactly what the correct forms sound like in speech.
• Mixing up things you can count with things you measure. Fewer children but less lemonade, many biscuits but much homework, a few friends but a little salt. The wrong option is usually the other one from the pair.
• Choosing the polite-sounding pronoun. Between you and I and asked Tom and myself both feel more careful than between you and me and asked Tom and me, which is why they are wrong so often.
• Reading only as far as the gap. Almost every hard question hides its evidence later in the sentence, and a child who commits early never sees it.

How to practise 11 plus Fill the Gap questions

This is a question type that rewards little and often rather than long sessions, because each one turns on a single decision and there is no long working out to build up. Ten focused minutes is plenty, which is the pattern we set out in how much 11 plus practice a child needs each day. When your child gets one wrong, ask them to read out the sentence with their choice in it and then with the correct answer in it, one after the other. Hearing the two side by side does more than being told which was right, and it is the habit that carries into eleven plus writing tasks as well. 11+ Daily has a Fill the Gap project alongside the other English formats, on laptop, tablet or phone, and the full set is listed on our 11 plus English practice page. Every question is original to 11+ Daily, nothing is a past paper and nothing is licensed from another publisher, and the bank is re-checked in rounds.

Questions parents ask