A friendly introduction to reading comprehension skills for the SSAT Elementary Level.
An inference is when you use clues in the text and what you already know to figure out something the author doesn’t say directly.
Inferences help you guess how people are feeling, understand jokes, or figure out what’s happening when someone doesn’t tell you everything.
On the SSAT, questions might ask what a character is feeling or why something happened, even if it’s not said directly.
A girl in a story is holding an umbrella, and the ground is wet. You can infer it just rained.
If a character yawns and rubs his eyes, you can infer he is sleepy.
Inferences are smart guesses you make using clues from the story and what you already know.