SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 17 of 98

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

The following sentence contains a word with a spelling error. Rectify the sentence by selecting the correct spelling of the identified word from the given options. He has to be conscious of his public manners as he is a decendent of a reputed family in this region.

(a)Dicsendent
(b)Decendant
(c)Descendant
(d)Discendent

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Two things have to be right at the same time, and one spelling gets both.

The word is built on descend, so it keeps the sc: d-e-s-c. The sentence's 'decendent' drops that s.

The noun meaning 'a person descended from an ancestor' is spelt descendant, with -ant. Every option ending in -ent fails this half.

Option (c), Descendant, is the spelling that carries the sc and the -ant together.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Dicsendent — Dicsendent scrambles the opening to 'dics-' and still ends in -ent. Neither the root nor the ending survives, so it is wrong twice over.
(b)
Decendant — Decendant gets the -ant ending right but keeps the missing s — it repeats the very error already sitting in the sentence.
(d)
Discendent — Discendent swaps the first e for an i and keeps -ent. There is no 'dis-' at the front of this word and the noun does not end in -ent.

Concept

Descendant is descend plus -ant: d-e-s-c-e-n-d-a-n-t.

The sc is where the word is usually lost, because the c is silent — you hear 'de-send'. Every member of the family keeps it: descend, descent, descendant, and on the opposite side ascend, ascent, ascendant.

The ending is a separate decision, and it does not follow a rule you can carry to other words. For this word, the noun is descendant with an a. 'Descendent' survives mainly as an adjective meaning descending, which is not what the sentence needs.

The stem calls the misspelling 'the identified word', and the word it means is decendent. Check each option letter by letter against the two things this word has to get right: the sc and the -ant.

Key facts

Descendant — a person or thing descended from an ancestor. This is the standard spelling of the noun.
The c in descend, descent and descendant is silent in speech but always written.
Ascendant is the mirror word for the opposite direction and keeps the same sc and the same -ant.
The sentence's spelling 'decendent' is wrong in two places: the missing s and the final -ent.

Study next

Words with a silent c after s: descend, ascend, scene, science, muscleNoun and adjective spelling pairs: dependant and dependent, descendant and descendentThe ascend/ascent/ascendant family as the mirror of descend/descent/descendant

Common traps

Repairing only the ending and choosing 'Decendant', which still has no s.
Spelling by ear, when the silent c leaves nothing in the sound to guide you.

The rectify-the-word format returns on 11 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.4 (keyed 'Upstairs') and on 25 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.5 (keyed 'Truly').

Spelling is also asked in the pick-the-correct-word form at English Q.20 of this shift, keyed 'Entrepreneurship', and in the find-the-faulty-sentence form on 26 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.14.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.