The Full Catalog of Analogy Relationships & Two-Step Bridges
Key Takeaways
- HSPT analogies draw on roughly sixteen recurring relationship families; naming the family converts a vocabulary question into a classification question you can answer in seconds.
- When two answer choices share the same broad relationship, the correct one is the choice whose bridge sentence survives the most specific wording of the stem.
- A two-step bridge - stating the relationship and then stating its direction - eliminates the reversed-pair trap that costs students the most analogy points.
- Only 10 of the 60 Verbal Skills items are analogies, so a single analogy is worth the same as a single synonym: never spend 45 seconds building a perfect bridge.
The Full Catalog of Analogy Relationships & Two-Step Bridges
Once you can build a bridge sentence, the remaining skill is recognition speed: knowing, within two or three seconds, which family of relationship the stem belongs to. HSPT analogies are not invented fresh each year. They recycle a limited catalog, and a student who has drilled that catalog is effectively answering a classification question rather than a reasoning question.
Ten of the 60 Verbal Skills items are analogies. That is a meaningful block of points, but it is also a warning: an analogy is worth exactly as much as a synonym, so a 45-second analogy is a bad trade.
The Working Catalog
| # | Relationship Family | Sample Stem | Bridge Sentence Template |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Synonym | Abate : Diminish | A means essentially the same as B |
| 2 | Antonym | Frugal : Wasteful | A is the opposite of B |
| 3 | Degree / Intensity | Warm : Scorching | A is a milder version of B |
| 4 | Part to Whole | Petal : Flower | A is one component of B |
| 5 | Whole to Part | Skeleton : Femur | A is the whole containing B |
| 6 | Category to Member | Reptile : Iguana | A is the class that includes B |
| 7 | Member to Category | Sonnet : Poem | A is one type of B |
| 8 | Tool to Function | Scissors : Cut | A is the instrument used to B |
| 9 | Worker to Tool | Surgeon : Scalpel | A is the professional who uses B |
| 10 | Worker to Product | Novelist : Manuscript | A is the person who creates B |
| 11 | Worker to Workplace | Chef : Kitchen | A is the person who works in B |
| 12 | Cause and Effect | Drought : Famine | A produces or leads to B |
| 13 | Object to Material | Sweater : Wool | A is made from B |
| 14 | Object to Characteristic | Diamond : Hard | A is defined by being B |
| 15 | Action to Object | Read : Book | A is the action performed on B |
| 16 | Measurement / Unit | Ounce : Weight | A is a unit used to measure B |
Two families deserve special comment. Object to characteristic items look easy but hide a trap: the characteristic must be essential, not merely common. A diamond is necessarily hard, but a sweater is not necessarily red. Measurement items pair a unit with the property it measures, and their distractors usually swap in a different property (ounce : length) or a different scale of the same property (ounce : ton).
The Two-Step Bridge
The classic HSPT analogy trap is a choice with the right relationship in the wrong direction. Defeat it by making the bridge do two jobs.
[Step 1: Name the family] ──> "This is Worker to Tool."
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[Step 2: Fix the direction] ──> "The WORKER comes FIRST, the TOOL comes SECOND."
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[Step 3: Test each choice in that exact order]
Worked Example: Reversal in Action
Stem: CARPENTER : HAMMER ::
- A) Nail : Carpenter
- B) Violin : Musician
- C) Painter : Brush
- D) Wrench : Plumber
Step 1 - Family: Worker to Tool. Step 2 - Direction: worker first, tool second.
- A) Nail : Carpenter - object then worker. Wrong family and reversed.
- B) Violin : Musician - tool then worker. Right family, reversed direction. Eliminate.
- C) Painter : Brush - worker then tool. Matches on both counts.
- D) Wrench : Plumber - tool then worker. Reversed. Eliminate.
Answer: C. Notice that B and D are the same trap deployed twice, which is exactly how HSPT analogy sets are built.
Tie-Breaking When Two Choices Fit
When two choices survive, sharpen the bridge until only one remains. Move from a general statement to the most specific true statement about the stem.
Stem: KITTEN : CAT ::
- A) Puppy : Dog
- B) Seedling : Tree
The loose bridge "A is a young B" fits both. Sharpen it: a kitten and a cat are the same animal at two life stages, and the word pair belongs to the same biological category. A seedling is a young tree, which also fits - so sharpen once more using the stem's own domain: both stem words name animals, and part-of-speech and domain parallelism break the tie in favor of A. The rule generalizes: when two choices share a relationship, prefer the one that also shares the stem's domain and grammatical form.
Distractor Patterns Worth Memorizing
- Topic magnet. A choice drawn from the same subject area as the stem but built on a different relationship (PEN : WRITE answered with PAPER : INK).
- Reversed pair. The correct relationship in the wrong order - by far the most common analogy trap.
- Degree drift. The right relationship at the wrong intensity (WARM : SCORCHING answered with cool : chilly rather than cool : frigid).
- Part-of-speech mismatch. A noun-to-noun stem answered with a noun-to-verb pair.
- Accidental association. A pair connected by habit rather than logic (DOCTOR : HOSPITAL answered with teacher : summer).
Timed Drill
Cover the right column. Name the family and the direction for each stem in under five seconds.
| Stem | Family & Direction |
|---|---|
| Famine : Starvation | Cause to effect |
| Baker : Oven | Worker to tool |
| Gallon : Volume | Unit to property measured |
| Whisper : Shout | Degree, mild to intense |
| Chapter : Novel | Part to whole |
| Cotton : Shirt | Material to object (reversed from object to material) |
| Poem : Sonnet | Category to member |
| Timid : Bold | Antonym |
The final row of that drill is the point of the whole section: cotton : shirt and shirt : cotton use the same relationship, and only the direction tells you which answer is right.
SCULPTOR : CHISEL ::
GALLON : VOLUME ::
A student builds the bridge 'the first word is the young form of the second' for the stem FOAL : HORSE, then sees the choice COW : CALF. Why is that choice wrong?
DROUGHT : FAMINE ::