Complete the Words is the task most people meet for the first time on the 2026 TOEFL. You see one short academic paragraph in which ten words have lost their second half, and you type the missing letters. It looks like a spelling test. In practice it is a grammar test played at speed: the letters you need are almost always decided by the words on either side of the gap.
The paragraph is short and factual — how tree rings form, why a plant closes its leaves, how an invention came about. The paragraph begins with complete text so you can find the topic and the tense. Then ten words are cut short: you see the beginning of the word followed by a row of blanks, one blank per missing letter. After the tenth gap, the rest of the paragraph is complete again. In our practice paragraphs the cut falls on every second word after the opening sentence, the common C-test pattern; the official samples follow the same general shape, but where the gaps fall and how many letters are missing (anywhere from 1 to 6) vary from paragraph to paragraph.
You never type the whole word, only its ending. In the sets we write for practice, the visible part is the first half of the word rounded down, so a word shows as many letters as it hides, or one fewer. That makes the blank count a useful check — elev plus five blanks has to be elevators, not elevator — but a weak starting point, because many words share the same opening and length.
Because the gaps are spread through ordinary sentences, a large share of them land on the most frequent words in English: articles, prepositions, pronouns, auxiliaries and joining words. Those are quick points. The rest are content words whose form — plural, past, -ing, adjective or adverb — is decided by the grammar around them, plus a few whose meaning is settled by the topic.
Thirty of the fifty Reading items come from this task, which makes it the single largest source of points in the section. And because Reading is adaptive, steady accuracy on these items contributes to the routing decision that sets the difficulty of the rest of the section.
Complete the Words rewards the kind of English knowledge that is hard to fake: knowing what word a sentence needs before you see it. Specifically, it checks:
The intact first sentence gives you two things you will need for almost every gap: the topic and the time frame. A paragraph that opens “In the early 1800s…” is in the past, so a gap like le__ after a singular subject is lent, not lend. A paragraph about steel bridges settles whether st___ is steel, stone or steam.
Glance at the complete sentences after the gaps as well. They often confirm a number (“each of them”), a contrast, or the meaning of a word you would otherwise have to guess. Ten seconds spent reading here saves far more later.
For each gap, look left, then right, and only then at the letters. The word before the gap makes a promise: had promises a past participle, one of promises a plural noun, the … of frames a noun. The words after the gap show what is needed next: a gap followed by the station is usually a preposition; a gap followed by a subject and verb is usually a joining word such as when, because or although.
Once you know the class of word, the visible letters normally leave one candidate. un___ could be under or until; if a noun phrase of place follows, it is under. so__ could be soon or some; if of them follows, only the quantity word works. The blank count is the final check, not the first step.
Since the missing letters are always the end of the word, the task constantly tests endings. Ask what the neighbors require. A number or these needs a plural; a singular subject in a present-tense paragraph needs -s on the verb; a preposition like by or before takes an -ing verb; an adverb slot after a verb and its object needs -ly.
Then spell the ending properly. Consonant plus y becomes -ies (ferries), many words ending in f become -ves (shelves), and adjectives ending in -le drop the e before -y (gently). The blank count catches many of these: a wrong spelling usually leaves a blank empty or needs one too many.
On the first pass, move left to right and fill every gap that its neighbors decide: small words, grammar endings, particles, fixed partners. If several words still fit after a few seconds, skip it. On the second pass, reread the paragraph from the first sentence with your answers in place and fill the gaps you skipped. A meaning gap is much easier to solve when the grammar around it is already complete.
In our course we use a gentle practice target of about three minutes per paragraph — roughly ten seconds a gap on the first pass, with the remaining time for the skipped gaps and a final reread. That is a practice setting, not an official limit; on test day, work to the clock on screen.
Before moving on, read the paragraph once with every answer in. Each word should fit both of its neighbors, match the tense and number of the paragraph, and fill its blanks exactly. This final read catches the commonest slips: a dropped plural, a present verb in a past paragraph, or a real word that fits the letters but not the topic.
Most lost points on this task come from a handful of predictable errors.
Mistake: Typing the whole word into the gap.
Better: Type only the letters after the ones shown: envir needs onment.
Why: The visible letters are already part of the answer; retyping them produces a different, wrong word.
Mistake: Reading only to the left: “Most students bring a laptop, but soon of them prefer paper.”
Better: “…but some of them prefer paper.”
Why: The words after the gap (of them) need a quantity word. Always check both sides.
Mistake: “All three elevator in the library are working.”
Better: “All three elevators…”
Why: Three and are both demand a plural, and the singular would leave one blank unfilled.
Mistake: “The match was canceled because the heavy rain.”
Better: “…because of the heavy rain.” or “…because it rained heavily.”
Why: Because introduces a clause; before a noun phrase you need because of. The same logic separates during (noun) from while (clause).
Mistake: “The instructions were very clearly.”
Better: “The instructions were very clear.”
Why: After be (or seem, feel), the word describes the subject, so it is an adjective. Very fits both classes, so look past it.
Mistake: Stopping at a hard gap and rereading until the word appears.
Better: Skip it, finish the gaps the grammar decides, then come back.
Why: The meaning gap is easier once the sentence around it is complete, and time spent stuck is time taken from every other gap.
Two paragraphs from our free practice bank, shown with every gap restored. The highlighted letters are what you would type; the list underneath explains what decides each one.
Complete the missing letters in the paragraph.
A cross section of a tree trunk from a temperate forest usually shows a series of concentric rings. These bands1 form because2 the layer3 of dividing4 cells under5 the bark6 produces distinct7 kinds of8 wood as9 the seasons10 change. In spring, growth is rapid, and the wood laid down is light and porous. By late summer the new wood is denser and darker. The sharp boundary between one year's dark wood and the next year's pale wood allows scientists to count a tree's age and even to detect past droughts in unusually narrow rings.
Complete the missing letters in the paragraph.
Unlike most mushrooms, truffles form their fruiting bodies underground. Because the1 spores lie2 sealed below3 ground, they4 cannot ride5 the breeze6 as freely7 as surface8 spores. Instead9, a mature10 truffle releases a strong scent that attracts squirrels, deer and other animals, which dig it up and eat it. The spores pass unharmed through the animal's gut and are deposited, often some distance away, in its droppings. People have long taken advantage of this attraction, training pigs and dogs to sniff out the prized delicacies.
Our free Complete the Words practice page has all 6 sets (60 questions) from the same bank as the examples above, with answer checking and an explanation for every option. For a short mixed session each day, try the Reading questions of the day.
The strategies on this page come from the Complete the Words module of the Test Ninjas TOEFL course. Each lesson teaches the English behind the task, then drills it:
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