Each vowel in the word ‘SIMILAR’ is changed to the following letter in the English alphabetical order and each consonant is changed to the preceding letter in the English alphabetical order. How many letters are there in the English alphabetical order between the letter which is the second from the left end and the third from the left end in the group of letters thus formed?

Correct — B. Transform the word first, then count. Doing it in the other order is where this question is lost.

SIMILAR has vowels I, I and A, which each move one place forward, and consonants S, M, L and R, which each move one place back.

S → R, I → J, M → L, I → J, L → K, A → B, R → Q

The new group is R J L J K B Q.

Second from the left is J(10). Third from the left is L(12).

Only K(11) lies between them, so the answer is one letter, option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Two — Two letters between would need the pair J and M. The third letter of the new group is L, because M is a consonant and steps back to L rather than forward to N.
• (c)
  Four — Four letters between J would put the third letter at O. Nothing in the rule sends M as far as O — a consonant moves exactly one place back.
• (d)
  Three — Three is what you get by counting J, K and L inclusively, or by moving M forward to N instead of back. The question asks for the letters between, which is K alone.

This is two questions stacked. The first is a transformation rule that treats vowels and consonants in opposite directions. The second is a counting question about the result.

Write the seven new letters out in a row before you read the second half of the stem. Guessing the transformed word from memory is how the wrong letter ends up in the second or third slot.

Then count strictly between the two named positions. Letters between J and L means K only — the endpoints are not counted.

Key facts

• The vowels of SIMILAR are I, I and A, and each moves one place forward.
• The consonants S, M, L and R each move one place back.
• SIMILAR becomes RJLJKBQ, whose second and third letters are J and L.

Common traps

• Counting inclusively, which turns one letter into three.
• Moving every letter forward and never separating vowels from consonants.
• Counting positions from the right when the stem says from the left end.

No directly related past PYQ was found.