List all possible four-letter words that can be formed from the word MEDITERRANEAN such that the first letter is E and the last letter is R.
They're listed below but here is how to calculate how many there are
E _ _ R We want to fill those two blanks.
Case 1. The two letters in the blanks are the same.
The only such possibilities are these 3: EAAR, EEER, ENNR.
Case 2. The two letters in the blanks are different. Then
we must choose them from these 8: M,E,D,I,T,R,A,N. We can
choose the letter for the first blank in 8 ways, and for
each of those ways we can choose the letter for the second
blank 7 ways. That's 8×7 or 56 ways.
So 3 ways from case 1 plus 56 ways from case 2, gives us
59 ways total.
Here are all 59 ways listed:
1. EAAR
2. EADR
3. EAER
4. EAIR
5. EAMR
6. EANR
7. EARR
8. EATR
9. EDAR
10. EDER
11. EDIR
12. EDMR
13. EDNR
14. EDRR
15. EDTR
16. EEAR
17. EEDR
18. EEER
19. EEIR
20. EEMR
21. EENR
22. EERR
23. EETR
24. EIAR
25. EIDR
26. EIER
27. EIMR
28. EINR
29. EIRR
30. EITR
31. EMAR
32. EMDR
33. EMER
34. EMIR
35. EMNR
36. EMRR
37. EMTR
38. ENAR
39. ENDR
40. ENER
41. ENIR
42. ENMR
43. ENNR
44. ENRR
45. ENTR
46. ERAR
47. ERDR
48. ERER
49. ERIR
50. ERMR
51. ERNR
52. ERTR
53. ETAR
54. ETDR
55. ETER
56. ETIR
57. ETMR
58. ETNR
59. ETRR
Edwin
