Alphabet Test, Dictionary Order and Word Formation

In the exam you are given one source word, such as STREAM, and four option words. You pick the option that can be made from the letters of the source, or the one that cannot. Nothing is asked about meaning, order or position. The whole question is one thing: does the source have enough letters?

A word can be made from the letters of a source word only if every letter it needs is available in the source at least as many times as the new word uses it. Each letter of the source can be used once per appearance. Order does not matter, only the stock of letters.

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So the first job is to tally the source word once: how many times does each letter occur? DEPARTMENT gives D 1, E 2, P 1, A 1, R 1, T 2, M 1, N 1.

Now test each option against the tally. Check the rarest letter first, then any repeated letter in the option.

• PARENT needs P, A, R, E, N, T once each: all available. It can be formed.
• MATTER needs T twice. DEPARTMENT has T twice. Available. It can be formed.
• DEPEND needs D twice. DEPARTMENT has only one D. It cannot be formed.
• TREND: T, R, E, N, D, all once. It can be formed.

Two fast filters before any counting. First, scan each option for a letter that the source does not have at all; that option is out. LITERATURE has no N, so RATIONAL is out at once. Second, if the source has no repeated letter (STREAM, EDUCATION), any option that repeats a letter is out, because one copy cannot do the work of two. Only an option that survives both filters needs a careful comparison with the tally.

Which type of question?

• "Which can be formed?" has one option that passes every test.
• "Which cannot be formed?" has one option with a missing letter or an over-used letter. Read this carefully: many marks are lost by answering the opposite question.
• "The word X cannot be formed from the letters of only one of the options" means the options are the sources. Take the rarest letter of X, and find the option that lacks it or lacks a copy of a double letter.

Why the repeated letter matters. A letter looks present, but one copy cannot do the work of two. MOTHER has one O, so it cannot make MOTOR, which needs two. A long source word does not guarantee double letters.

Also check that the option is not longer than the source: a 7-letter word cannot come from 6 letters, even if every letter appears.

Tally the source. Rare letter first, then repeated letters. Re-read 'can' or 'cannot'.

In the exam four or five words are given, usually numbered, and the question asks for the full order as a number string, or for one word: the first, the last or the second in the dictionary. The words almost always share their first three or four letters, so the deciding letter sits deep inside the word. Your job is to find that letter quickly.

A dictionary lists words in alphabetical order, but with a strict method. Words are compared letter by letter from the left. The first position where two words differ decides which comes first. Everything after that position is ignored.

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Take Pride, Primary, Prime, Prism and Prize. All start with P-R-I, so those three letters decide nothing. The 4th letters are D, M, M, S and Z. D comes first, so Pride is first. S comes before Z, so Prism comes before Prize. Primary and Prime share M as well, so look at the 5th letter: A in Primary, E in Prime. A comes before E, so Primary comes before Prime. The order is Pride, Primary, Prime, Prism, Prize.

Prefix concept. If one word is the beginning of another, the shorter word comes first. Cap comes before Capable, and Prim would come before Prime. This is the point many students forget, because a short word has no letter left to compare.

The method.
1. Group the words by the first letter, then by the second, and so on, stopping when a group has a single word.
2. Inside a group, look only at the first letter that differs.
3. Write the order using the word numbers, and match it with the options.

Question forms. The question may ask for the whole order (options are number strings), the word that comes first or last, the n-th word, or the reverse dictionary order. For reverse order, arrange normally and read the list from the other end. If the question asks for the word that comes first, you do not need to arrange all of them: compare and keep the smallest.

Remember that the length of the word never decides the place, and capital or small letters do not change the order.

First difference decides. A prefix word comes before its longer word.

In the exam two kinds of change appear. In the first, the letters of a word are swapped in pairs (1st with 2nd, 3rd with 4th, and so on) and you are asked for the letter at some place, often counted from the right. In the second, every letter is moved a step in the alphabet (vowels one way, consonants the other) and you are asked about the new word: its vowels, a letter at some place, or the whole word.

The common changes are:

• Each letter moved one step forward (+1) or backward (−1) in the alphabet.
• Vowels moved one way and consonants the other way: for example each vowel to the next letter and each consonant to the previous letter.
• Letters interchanged: first and last, or the first with the fourth, the second with the fifth, and so on.
• After the change, the letters are arranged in alphabetical order (this joins this type to the next two types).

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For shifts, write the new word out in full before answering. Do not do the change in your head on only the letters the question asks about: a mistake in one letter spoils the answer, and a written word can be checked. (For pair swaps there is a faster and equally safe place method, given below.)

For RADHIKA with +1 on every letter: R→S, A→B, D→E, H→I, I→J, K→L, A→B, giving SBEIJLB. Vowels in the new word are E and I, so the answer to "how many vowels" is 2. Note that the vowels of the old word (A, I, A) are not what is asked.

For shifts, work with positions: R 18 → 19 = S. The straight line has nothing after Z, so Z + 1 does not exist unless the question says the alphabet wraps (then Z + 1 = A, as in the foundation).

For "vowels one way, consonants the other", mark the vowels of the original word first (A, E, I, O, U), then apply the right shift to each group. A frequent mistake is to apply one shift to the whole word.

For interchanges, number the places 1 to n and swap the pairs named. In PLANET with 1↔4, 2↔5, 3↔6 you get NETPLA, a pure place change, with no change in the letters themselves.

Pair swap: no need to write the whole word. When 1↔2, 3↔4, 5↔6 … are interchanged, a letter at an odd place goes to the next place and a letter at an even place goes to the previous place. So the new letter at an odd place L is the old letter at place L + 1, and at an even place L it is the old letter at place L − 1. A right-count R is first turned into a left place with L = n + 1 − R, where n is the length of the word. In TEACHING (n = 8) the 2nd from the right is L = 7, an odd place, so it holds the old 8th letter, G. If n is odd, the last letter has no partner and stays where it is.

Vowel landing: count only the letters that can land on a vowel. When every letter moves one step forward (+1), a vowel can never stay a vowel (A→B, E→F, I→J, O→P, U→V), and a new vowel is produced only from D, H, N, T (D→E, H→I, N→O, T→U). When every letter moves one step back (−1), a new vowel comes only from B, F, J, P, V. So 'how many vowels in the new word' needs only a look at these letters of the old word. Use it for a plain +1 or −1 on the whole word; when vowels and consonants move in opposite directions, write the new word out.

Shifts: write the new word out. Pair swaps: use the place method. Always answer about the new word, not the old.

In the exam a word of 5 to 8 letters is given and its letters are arranged in alphabetical order. The question asks how many letters stay at the same place, or how many change their place. The word is the same each time; only the counting changes with the question. The idea is to put two rows one under the other.

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Write the original word in the top row. Write the same letters in alphabetical order in the bottom row. Now look column by column. A letter has stayed if the same letter stands in the same column in both rows. Put a tick for a match and a cross for a mismatch.

For RADHIKA the top row is R A D H I K A and the sorted row is A A D H I K R. Column 1: R and A, cross. Columns 2 to 6: A, D, H, I, K match, five ticks. Column 7: A and R, cross. So 5 letters keep their place and 2 change.

Always check what is asked.

• "How many letters remain at the same position?" means the ticks.
• "How many letters change their position?" means the crosses, which is the number of letters minus the ticks.

Repeated letters. Sort them as they come. In a word with two A's the sorted row has A A side by side. Compare column by column as usual; do not skip a repeated letter. In the sorted row the repeated letters make blocks, and a repeated letter can match even if it has moved from another place, because only the letter in the column matters.

Why a letter stays: the range test. In the sorted row a letter lands after all the smaller letters of the word. If s letters of the word are smaller than it and it occurs c times, its copies fill the places s + 1 to s + c of the sorted row. A copy of the letter at place p in the word stays exactly when p lies in that range. In ANALYSIS the letter L has 3 smaller letters (A, A, I) and occurs once, so it belongs at place 4; it stands at place 4 in the word, so it stays. The first letter can stay only if it is the smallest letter of the word, and the last letter only if it is the largest.

Sorting is also the first step of the next type: sort the word, then count letters in the alphabet between two places of the new row. Here you compare the two rows; there you count in the alphabet.

Two rows, tick the matching columns. Unchanged = ticks; changed = total − ticks.

In the exam this appears in three forms. The direct form names two letters, or one place from each end of the alphabet, and asks how many letters lie between them. The sorted form gives a word, arranges its letters alphabetically and asks the same question for two places of the new row. The middle form asks for the letter exactly midway between two letters, or the centre letter of a word. All three rest on one small piece of arithmetic on slot numbers.

To count the letters between two letters, first find their slots. The letters strictly between slot a and slot b (with a smaller than b) are those at a + 1, a + 2, … , b − 1. Their number is (b − a) − 1.

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In the figure G is slot 7 and R is slot 18. The difference is 11, and the letters between are H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q: ten letters, which is 11 − 1.

The word "between" is strict: the two named letters are not counted. If the question says "including both", the count is difference + 1.

Slots named from the two ends. A typical question: "How many letters are there between the 7th letter from the left and the 9th letter from the right?" Convert: 7th from the left is slot 7. The 9th from the right is slot 27 − 9 = 18. So 18 − 7 − 1 = 10. There is a faster way: the letters before the first slot (6) and after the second (8) are outside, and the 7th and 9th themselves are not counted, so letters between = 26 − (7 + 9) = 10. This works only when you take one place from the left and one from the right of the full alphabet, and m + n is at most 26. In general, convert both to left positions p1 and p2 and use the count = |p1 − p2| − 1.

Sorted lists (new pattern). Many recent questions give a word, ask you to arrange its letters in alphabetical order, and then ask "how many letters of the English alphabet lie between the 2nd letter from the left and the 4th letter from the right of the new arrangement". Two things are going on. First, sort the letters and read the two letters by their place in the new row (a row of n letters has L + R = n + 1). Second, count the letters between those two letters in the alphabet, not in the row. Keep these two counts apart.

A letter is exactly in the middle of two letters when it is the same number of steps from each. In slots, its number is the average of the two slot numbers.

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Look at the top line of the figure: E (5) and O (15). The average is (5 + 15) ÷ 2 = 10, which is J. J is five steps from E and five from O.

In the bottom line E (5) and N (14) have an average of 9.5. There is no letter at 9.5. The middle falls between I and J, so there is no single middle letter. Many questions give "two letters" (I and J) or "none" as options. A whole-number average gives one letter; an average ending in .5 gives two letters. The average is a whole number when the two slots are both odd or both even.

Questions often name the two letters from different ends. Convert both to left-slots first: the 5th from the left (5) and the 12th from the right (27 − 12 = 15), whose average is 10, again J.

Letters named by word positions. A question may ask for the letter between the 1st and 4th letters of the word CUTE. The 1st is C (3), the 4th is E (5), and the letter between them in the alphabet is D (4).

Sub-lines of the alphabet. Sometimes letters are removed and a count is asked.

• Alternate letters kept starting from A (A, C, E, G, …): the k-th letter is at slot 2k − 1. The 8th is slot 15 = O.
• Alternate letters kept starting from B (B, D, F, …): the k-th letter is at slot 2k.
• All vowels removed: 21 consonants remain. The k-th from the right is the (22 − k)-th consonant from the left. List the consonants B C D F G H J K L M N P Q R S T V W X Y Z and count.

Middle of a word. The letter 'equidistant from both ends' of a word is its centre. It exists only when the word has an odd number of letters n, and it is the ((n + 1) ÷ 2)-th letter. In TREATMENT (9 letters) it is the 5th letter, T. The same works on a sorted row: for TOUCHED the sorted row is C D E H O T U, and its centre, the 4th letter, is H. Writing the row in reversed alphabetical order (U T O H E D C) does not change the centre, so the words 'reversed alphabetical order' make no difference when the number of letters is odd. With an even number of letters there are two centre letters, so a question will not ask for 'the' centre.

Between = difference − 1. Middle = average of the slots. Sorted word: sort first, pick the places in the new row, then count in the alphabet.

In the exam four to six words are given, and you must choose the order in which they happen, grow or rank in real life. In the older form the words are numbered and the options are number strings. In the form of the latest papers the options themselves are word sequences, and the question reads 'select the most logical sequence'. The method is the same in both: there is only one natural order, and the options let you find it by elimination.

Here four to six words are given with numbers, and you have to put them in the order in which they naturally happen, grow, or rank. The options are number strings. There is no formula, but there is a method, and it works because in real life only one order makes sense.

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The words come from a small set of "stories".

• Growth and life stages: Seed, Plant, Flower, Fruit; Infant, Child, Teenager, Adult.
• Process or production: Wheat, Flour, Dough, Bread; Cotton, Yarn, Cloth, Shirt.
• Time order: Second, Minute, Hour, Day; Morning, Noon, Evening, Night.
• Size, rank or place: Village, Tehsil, District, State, Country; Constable, Head Constable, Sub-Inspector, Inspector.
• Cause and effect, or steps of a task: Switch on, Press, Wait, Collect.
• Study and career stages: Admission, Study, Exam, Result, Job.

New-pattern examples. Floppy, CD, USB, Cloud is the order in which storage devices came into use (oldest to newest). Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Biotechnology goes from a basic science to an applied one. Panchayat, Block, District, State goes from the smallest area to the largest. A5, A4, A3, A2 is a number run, where a plain numeric order is wanted. In each case ask: what is the starting point, what is the end point, and in which direction (oldest to newest, smallest to largest) does the question want the order?

The method. First find the start: which word must happen before all the others? Then find the end: which word is the final product or the biggest? These two words fix the first and last digits of the answer. Kill every option that does not begin or end correctly. Then fill the middle, and test the remaining options one by one.

In the figure, Seed (2) must come first and Fruit (1) must come last, so only options that start with 2 and end with 1 survive. Then Plant (4) before Flower (3).

Two orders can look possible, such as small to big and big to small. The options almost always allow only one of them, so use the direction that the options support. Do not confuse this type with alphabetical order or word length; the order here depends on the meaning of the words.

If you cannot decide the middle, even a certain first word can remove two options. Use elimination, not guessing.

Find the first and the last item, then fill the middle.

This type collects the word puzzles that do not fit the earlier ones. In the exam you meet them as separate small forms: a jumbled word to be set right (alone or inside a sentence), a word to be built from numbered letters, a word with missing letters, a group of words that share added letters, a correctly spelt word, a letter-number key. They look different, but each is solved by a simple, careful routine and each has a built-in check.

Jumbled word. A word is written with its letters mixed up, either alone (TERINNRAOPEITT) or inside a sentence (several BIGAUUMOS clauses). You must pick the real word. Do not unscramble it in your head. Count the letters first: an option with a different number of letters is wrong at once. BIGAUUMOS has 9 letters, and of the four options only AMBIGUOUS has 9. If two options survive, compare their letters with the jumbled letters, one letter at a time (the tally idea of word formation), and finally read the sentence to see which word makes sense.

Numbered letters of a word. The letters of a word are numbered, for example 1-M, 2-O, 3-N, 4-E, 5-T, 6-A, 7-R, 8-Y, and you must find the number string that spells another word, say MENTOR. Write the target word, find the number of each of its letters, and match the string with the options: M 1, E 4, N 3, T 5, O 2, R 7 gives 1 4 3 5 2 7. Eliminate on the first digit, then on the second. If the source word has a repeated letter, that letter has two numbers and more than one string can be right; the options will contain only one.

Complete the word. A word has missing letters, for example S _ _ R K L E, and options give the missing letters. Try each option and read the whole word aloud: P, A gives SPARKLE, a real word. Another option such as T, A would give STARKLE, which does not exist. Use the common patterns and known suffixes (-TION, -ING, -ABLE).

Same letters added to a group of words. Four words are given with a missing beginning (or end). Find the letters that, added to all of them, make real words. ONE, RAIN, ORM and EAM take ST to make STONE, STRAIN, STORM and STEAM. Test the common letters on each word of the group, not on one only. The option must work on all the words.

Correct spelling. Compare the options letter by letter. The wrong spellings usually differ in one place: a double letter, an e or i swapped, or a silent letter.

Letters with numbers (code table). A key is given: A = 1, E = 2, P = 3, T = 4, L = 5, N = 6. You must find the number string that stands for a word, say PLANET. Write the word, replace letter by letter, and compare with the options: P 3, L 5, A 1, N 6, E 2, T 4 gives 3 5 1 6 2 4. Eliminate on the first digit first, then the second. A swapped neighbour (3 5 6 1 …) is the common trap.

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How many meaningful words from a letter set. A box has 3 or 4 letters. Take each letter as the first letter in turn and check the rest; four letters have 24 arrangements, so be systematic. Count only everyday words. If time is short, leave this one for the end.

In all of these, work from a written check, not from memory of how the word 'looks'.

Replace letter by letter. Test every option on every word. Count a letter no more times than it exists.

What the latest paper asks. A word is given, and four of its letters are picked by place (for example the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th letters of TRAVEL). The question reads: 'How many meaningful four-letter English words can be formed using these letters, each letter used once?' The options are counts (None, One, Two, Three). Older papers asked for a letter of the new word (its first or last letter), with the instruction 'if more than one word can be formed, mark X; if none, mark Z'. The skill is the same: pick the right letters, then list every word they can make without missing one.

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Step 1: Number the letters. Write 1, 2, 3 … under the word before you pick. In TEACHING the letters are T1 E2 A3 C4 H5 I6 N7 G8. Picking the 4th to 7th gives C, H, I, N.

Step 2: Rearrange. Try the common endings (-ING, -ED, -ER, -LY) and put the rarest letter first. From C, H, I, N we get CHIN. Every letter used once, so it is a valid word.

Counting the words without missing any. Write the four chosen letters, then take each one in turn as the first letter and place the others after it. Four letters give at most 24 arrangements, so this is quick. For R, A, T, E: starting with R gives RATE; with A and E nothing; with T gives TARE and TEAR. That is three words. Count only words you are sure are in an ordinary English dictionary, and leave out abbreviations and doubtful words. A word without any of A, E, I, O, U is rare (MYTH and RHYTHM exist), and Q is usually followed by U, so sets like S, H, P, T often give 'None'. Still, check the options and the letters; do not eliminate on this alone.

The older X / Z form. When the question asks for a letter of the new word, test for a second word as well. If two words give different answers for the asked letter, mark X; if no word exists, mark Z; if every word gives the same letter, that letter is the answer.

Step 3: Test for a second word. Swap neighbours, put a different letter first, and try other endings. From C, H, I, N, INCH is also a word. Two words with different first letters (C and I). So the question "what is the first letter?" has no single answer, and you mark X.

The test for a second word is the most important step. Most wrong answers come from stopping at the first word that is found.

When the answer is Z. If the picked letters make no meaningful word (for example Q, U, I, E), mark Z. Do not invent a word.

The same letter in both words. If the question asks for a letter that is the same in every word that can be formed (for instance two words that both end in N), then the answer is that letter, not X. X applies only when the asked letter itself is different. Read what is asked.

Counting positions. Count from the left unless the question says from the right, and start at 1, not 0. For "from the right", use L = n + 1 − R on the word.

Number the letters, pick the places, list every word by fixing each letter as the first letter. Count only sure dictionary words.

This is the base of the whole chapter, and it comes in three forms. In the first, a place is named from the left or the right and you give the letter (or a letter is named and you give its place from the other end). In the second, a reference letter is given and you move a few places to its left or right, in the alphabet or in a word. In the third, the alphabet is written backwards, wholly or in parts, and the same questions are asked. All three are one idea: find the slot number from the left, move on it, and read the letter.

Slot lookup is the simplest type, and the base of everything else. A "slot" is just a place in the line of 26 letters. The question names a slot and asks which letter sits there.

Counting from the left is easy: the 5th letter from the left is E. Counting from the right is where mistakes happen. The 1st letter from the right is Z, which is the 26th from the left. The 2nd from the right is Y, the 25th from the left. The pattern is clear: the r-th letter from the right is the (27 − r)-th letter from the left.

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So the method has only three steps.

1. If the count is from the right, convert it: left-slot = 27 − r.
2. Find the nearest anchor (E, J, O, T, Y).
3. Count one or two steps from that anchor (A = 1 and B = 2 you remember directly).

Take the 14th letter from the right end. 27 − 14 = 13. The nearest anchor is J = 10, so K = 11, L = 12, M = 13. The letter is M. Check: 13 + 14 = 27, as the link L + R = 27 demands.

The reverse question also comes the other way round: "the position of S from the right". S is 19th from the left, so from the right it is 27 − 19 = 8th.

Here the question gives you a starting letter (the reference) and asks for the letter a few steps away. For example: "the 5th to the left of the 8th letter from the right end".

Think of the alphabet as a road with A at the left end and Z at the right end. Walking to the right takes you towards Z, so the slot number goes up. Walking to the left takes you towards A, so the slot number goes down.

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The danger is the starting letter. If it is counted from the right, its slot has to be converted first. So there are always two stages:

1. Find the reference slot (from the left). A right-count r becomes 27 − r.
2. Move: k-th to the right = slot + k; k-th to the left = slot − k.

Take the 5th to the left of the 8th letter from the right end. Stage 1: 27 − 8 = 19, which is S. Stage 2: 19 − 5 = 14, which is N.

You can also check without converting. Moving left means moving away from the right end, so the right-count grows: 8 + 5 = 13th from the right, and 27 − 13 = 14. Same answer.

Out-of-range case. If the new slot is below 1 or above 26 on this straight line, no such letter exists. "3rd to the right of Y" would be slot 28, and there is no 28th letter. Choose "cannot be determined" if it is among the options. Only when the question says the alphabet is cyclic (or "after Z comes A") do you wrap: slot 28 − 26 = 2, which is B.

Moving inside a word. The same method works on the places of a word. In TRAINERS the 3rd letter from the left is A (place 3). The 2nd letter to its right is at place 3 + 2 = 5, which is N. In a word of n letters the two counts add up to n + 1 (not 27), and a place outside 1 to n does not exist.

Now the reversed alphabet (written Z, Y, X, … , A). Here the first place holds Z, the second holds Y. So the k-th letter from the left in the reversed line is the normal letter at slot 27 − k, and the k-th from the right is simply the normal letter at slot k. Do not confuse "from the right of the alphabet" with "the position in the reversed alphabet". Read which one is asked.

Reversed alphabet: right means subtract. When the alphabet is written Z to A, moving to the right takes you towards A, so the normal position goes down. You never need to rewrite the alphabet. The 12th letter to the right of O in the reversed alphabet is 12 steps before O in the normal alphabet: 15 − 12 = 3, which is C. In the same way, the 13th from the left of the reversed line is the normal letter 27 − 13 = 14, N, and the 5th to its right is 14 − 5 = 9, I.

Partly reversed alphabet. Sometimes only a part of the alphabet is reversed (the first half, the second half, blocks of eight) and a position question follows. The trick is to see what the condition really changes.

The slots stay; the letters in the slots change. Slot 1 is still slot 1, slot 14 is still slot 14. Only the letter sitting in a slot is different. So do all the left-and-right arithmetic on slot numbers first, and only at the end ask: "which letter does the condition put in this slot?"

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Suppose a block of slots from s to e is written in reverse. The first slot of the block gets the last letter of the block, and so on. So the slot x inside the block holds the original letter at (s + e) − x. Call s + e the constant.

For the blocks of 8, the question must say what happens to Y and Z. When it says they stay in place, slots 25 and 26 are unchanged.

[[fig:3]]

Example: first half reversed, where is K? K is the original letter 11, so the slot is 14 − 11 = 3 (the figure's red box). If the whole alphabet is reversed, the letter at left-slot k is the original letter 27 − k, and the letter at right-slot r is simply the original letter r.

Under whole reversal, "letters between" and "exact middle" answers do not change, because it is a mirror. Under half reversal they can change, so convert each letter to its new slot first, then count.

Convert to a left-slot, move (right adds, left subtracts), read the letter. Reversed alphabet: right subtracts. Part reversed: slot first, constant second.

In the exam a word of 5 to 9 letters is given and you are asked how many pairs of its letters have as many letters between them in the word as there are between them in the English alphabet. The question names a direction: 'forward', 'in both the forward and the backward direction', or 'in either direction'. It looks long, but it is a counting job with a quick check at the end of this section.

Take any two letters of a word. They have some letters between them in the word, and some letters between them in the alphabet. If the two counts are equal, the two letters form a pair of the kind the question asks about.

Because "letters between" equals "gap − 1" in both places, we can compare the gaps themselves:

word gap (difference of word positions) = alphabet gap (difference of alphabet positions).

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Look at NURSE. Under the word write the alphabet positions: N 14, U 21, R 18, S 19, E 5. Check pairs one by one.

• U (word place 2) and S (word place 4): word gap 2; alphabet gap 21 − 19 = 2. Equal, so it is a pair.
• R (3) and S (4): word gap 1; alphabet gap 1. A pair.
• N–U: 1 and 7, no. N–R: 2 and 4, no. U–R: 1 and 3, no. R–E: 2 and 13, no.

So NURSE has 2 pairs.

Direction. The question may say "in either direction", or "in the forward direction" (also "in the same order"). Forward means the letter on the left of the word is the smaller one in the alphabet, so the alphabet runs in the same direction as the word. For example U and S are in the word as U then S, but in the alphabet S comes before U, so U–S is a backward pair. R–S is forward. Count both kinds for "either direction" and only forward pairs for "forward".

A good habit: write the alphabet position under every letter and also the word number. Compare the two gaps for each pair, a few seconds each. In long words the list is long, so look for letters that are close in the alphabet (consecutive letters like S, T, U or D, E) and near each other in the word first.

The sum-and-difference check (faster than testing every pair). Write two numbers under every letter: d = alphabet position − word place, and s = alphabet position + word place. Two letters form a forward pair exactly when their d values are equal, and a backward pair exactly when their s values are equal. The reason: in a forward pair the alphabet position and the word place rise by the same amount, so their difference stays the same; in a backward pair one rises as the other falls, so their sum stays the same.

For RECREATE the d values are 17, 3, 0, 14, 0, −5, 13, −3. The two zeros belong to C (place 3) and E (place 5): a forward pair. The s values are 19, 7, 6, 22, 10, 7, 27, 13. The two sevens belong to E (place 2) and A (place 6): a backward pair. So with both directions counted, RECREATE has 2 pairs in all: one forward and one backward. For 'forward' count only equal d values; for 'either direction' count equal d values and equal s values.

Pair: word gap = alphabet gap. 'Forward' keeps only the pairs where the alphabet runs the same way as the word.