Each vowel in the word PRONOUNS is changed to the letter immediately following…
2026
Each vowel in the word PRONOUNS is changed to the letter immediately following it in the English alphabetical order and each consonant is changed to the second letter preceding it in the English alphabetical order. Which of the following letters will appear exactly twice in the new group of letters thus formed?
Answer: C. L — Concept: In a letter-shift code every letter of the source word is replaced by another letter a fixed number of places away in the alphabet, and the size and…
- A.
P
- B.
Q
- C.
L
- D.
W
Attempted by 33 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept: In a letter-shift code every letter of the source word is replaced by another letter a fixed number of places away in the alphabet, and the size and direction of that shift are decided only by the class of the letter being replaced. Here a vowel moves one place forward in the alphabet, while a consonant moves two places backward. Once every letter has been replaced, the result is simply a string of letters, so a frequency question is settled by tallying how many times each letter occurs in that string.
Application: PRONOUNS is made up of eight letters — P, R, O, N, O, U, N, S. Applying the correct shift to each letter in turn gives:
Letter | Class | Shift applied | New letter |
|---|---|---|---|
P | consonant | two places backward | N |
R | consonant | two places backward | P |
O | vowel | one place forward | P |
N | consonant | two places backward | L |
O | vowel | one place forward | P |
U | vowel | one place forward | V |
N | consonant | two places backward | L |
S | consonant | two places backward | Q |
Reading the results in the same order, the new group of letters is N P P L P V L Q.
Cross-check: tallying that new group letter by letter —
P occurs three times, coming from R and from each of the two O's.
L occurs twice, coming from each of the two N's.
N, V and Q occur once each, coming from P, from U and from S respectively.
So the letter that appears exactly twice in the new group is L. Among the letters listed with the question, P appears three times and Q appears once, while W is never produced at all, because only Y shifts back to W and PRONOUNS contains no Y.