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Syllogism
Exam

Importance

Exam

Importance

CAT

Very Important

IBPS/Bank PO

Very Important

XAT

Very Important

BANK Clerk

Very Important

IIFT

Very Important

SSC

Very Important

SNAP

Very Important

CSAT

Very Important

NMAT

Very Important

Other Govt Exams

Very Important

Other Aptitude Test

Very Important

Introduction
Syllogism is one of the very important chapters for any aptitude test exam. In these types of questions premise
has generally two statements on the basis of which a deduction has to be made for conclusion. And then that
conclusion we have to select from the given options

We may have a case where from the given premise no conclusion can be drawn
There are two methods to solve these types of questions:(i)

Venn Diagram

(ii) Rules of deduction.

Now we will see how to derive conclusion from the given premise from these two methods but before that lets have
a look at the different components of the premise and for that take two example of premise

All Rats are Hats.. (i)

All Hats are Pats.. (ii)

(i)

The premises normally start with qualifiers or quantifiers, e.g. the word All, No, some and Some Not. The
word All has its synonyms as Every, Any, Each, whereas the word Some can also be replaced by Many,
Few, A little, Most of, Much of, More, etc.

(ii) A premise consists of a subject and a predicate wherein the first term [e.g. Rats in statement (i)] is the

subject and the second term [e.g. Hats in statement (i)] the predicate. Similarly, in statement (ii), Hats is
called the subject and Pats is the predicate.

(iii) The word that occurs in both the premises is known as the middle term (in this example since Hats is in
both the premise hence it is called middle term).
(iv) The conclusion of the premise middle term should not appear and conclusion should consist of the other two
words (Rats and Pats in the above example) and the.

The premises can be divided into 2 types (Based on qualifier)

(A) Universal statements [ if the qualifier used in the premise is All, Every, Any, Each]

(B) Particular statements [if the qualifier used in the premise is Some, Many, Few, A little, Most of,
Much of, More, etc]

The premises can be divided into 2 types (Based on type of statement)

(A) Positive (affirmative) statements [ if premise has no negation]

(B) Negative statements [If premise has a negative term like not or no]

The combination of the two different categories of classifications leads to four different premises as given in Table
below.
Universal/ Particular

Affirmative/ Negative

All, Every, Any,

Each

Universal

Affirmative

No , Not None

Universal

Negative

Some, Many

Particular

Affirmative

Some not, Many not

Particular

Negative

The subject or the predicate can be either distributed or not distributed in the given premise.
The subject and the predicate are either distributed (indicated as yes) or not distributed (indicated as no) depending
on what kind of a statement it is. Table below shows the distribution pattern of the subject and the predicate.
Universal affirmative
Universal negative

Example

Subject

Predicate

All, Every, Any,

Each

Yes

No

No , Not None

Yes

Yes

Some, Many

No

No

Some not, Many not

No

Yes

Particular affirmative
Particular negative
Please note that:

(i)

Subject is distributed only in Universal statements.

(ii) Predicate is distributed in Negative statement.

RULES FOR DEDUCTIONS

1.

Every deduction should contain three and only three distinct terms.

2.

The middle term must be distributed at least once in the premises.

3.

If one premise is negative, then the conclusion must be negative.

4.

If one premise is particular, then the conclusion must be particular.

5.

If both the premises are negative, no conclusion can be drawn.

6.

If both the premises are particular, no conclusion can be drawn.

7.

No term can be distributed in the conclusion, if it is not distributed in the premises.

Now lets take few examples to understand thisExample 1) Find the conclusion of

(i)

All Rats are Pats

(ii) All Pats are Cats

Solution : Now look at the minute details of each premise(i)

Here the first statement starts with All which is Universal affirmative hence it is a universal affirmative
statement, and the subject (Rats) is distributed but the predicate (Pats) is not distributed.

(ii) The second statement is also Universal affirmative, the subject Pats is distributed and the predicate Cats is
not distributed.
(iii) Here the middle term is Pats as it occurs in both the premises.
(iv) Middle term is Pats is distributed once in the premises (In this example Premise ii) hence it satisfies Rule [2]
hence we can find a conclusion.
(v) Conclusion will have two terms and these terms are Rats and Cats
(vi) As Rats is distributed in the 1st premises and Cats is not distributed,
(vii) In final conclusion Rats is distributed but Cats is not distributed.
Conclusion: All Rats are Cats
Note of Caution: The conclusion cannot be All Cats are Rats as in this case we have distributed the
Venn diagram approach:(i)

All Rats are Pats: Can be represented as-

Pats

Rats

(ii) All Pats are Cats: Can be represented asPats

Cats

Overall conclusion is:
Cats
Pats
Rats

Hence final conclusion is all rats are cats.
Example 2) Find the conclusion of

(i) All Rats are Pats (ii) Some Rats are Cats
Solution: Now look at the minute details of each premise(i)

Here the first statement starts with All which is Universal affirmative hence it is a universal affirmative
statement, and the subject (Rats) is distributed but the predicate (Pats) is not distributed.

(ii) Here the 2ndstatement starts with Some which is Particular affirmative hence it is a Particular affirmative

statement, and the subject (Rats) is not distributed and the predicate (Pats) is not distributed.

(iii) Here the middle term is Rats as it occurs in both the premises.
(iv) Middle term is Rats is distributed once in the premises (In this example Premise i) hence it satisfies Rule [2]
hence we can find a conclusion.
(v) Conclusion will have two terms and these terms are Pats and Cats
(vi) In premise neither Pats nor Cats are distributed; so in conclusion they should not be distributed.
Conclusion: Some Pats are Cats or some Cats are Pats

Venn diagram approach

(i)

All Rats are Pats: Can be represented as-

Pats

Rats

Rats

(ii) Some Rats are Cats: Can be represented asCats

Overall conclusion is:

Pats
Rats

Cats

Pats

Rats

Cats

Or

Hence final conclusion is Some Pats are Cats or some Cats are Pats.
Example 3) Find the conclusion of
(i) All Rats are Pats (ii) No Pats are Cats
Solution: Now look at the minute details of each premise(i)

Here the first statement starts with All which is Universal affirmative hence it is a universal affirmative
statement, and the subject (Rats) is distributed but the predicate (Pats) is not distributed.

(ii) Here the 2ndstatement starts with No which is Universal negative hence both subject (Rats) and the
predicate (Pats) is distributed.
(iii) Here the middle term is Pats as it occurs in both the premises.
(iv) Middle term is Pats is distributed once in the premises (In this example Premise ii) hence it satisfies Rule [2]
hence we can find a conclusion.
(v) Conclusion will have two terms and these terms are Rats and Cats
(vi) Since one of the premises is negative hence conclusion must be negative.
(vii) In premise both Rats and Cats is distributed, so in final conclusion they should be distributed.
Conclusion: No Rats are cats or No Cats are Rats