SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 6 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.

Select the most appropriate option to substitute the underlined segment in the given sentence. I have been living in Hyderabad since I am born .

(a)since I was born
(b)since I have born
(c)since I will be born
(d)since I born

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Since marks the point at which an action started, and the clause it introduces takes the past simple: since I moved, since I joined, since I was born.

The main clause 'I have been living' is present perfect continuous and is correct as printed, so only the since-clause has to change.

Born is a passive participle — a person is born or was born, never has born. Past simple plus that passive gives was born. Option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
since I have born — Have born is not a passive form. The person is the one born, so the verb must be 'be' plus born. 'Have borne' does exist, but it means to have carried or endured.
(c)
since I will be born — Will be born puts the starting point in the future, which cannot begin an action that has been running up to now.
(d)
since I born — Born on its own has no verb in it. It is a participle, not a finite past tense, so the auxiliary 'was' is missing.

Concept

This is the since / for pairing, and the item tests both halves of it at once.

Since takes a point in time: since 2010, since Monday, since I was born. For takes a length of time: for five years, for two hours.

The tenses then split across the two clauses. The main clause carries the present perfect or the present perfect continuous because the action still runs, and the since-clause drops to the past simple because the starting point is over and done.

The item hides a second fault inside the first. Even a candidate who knows the since-clause takes a past tense has to know that born is passive, which rules out 'since I born'.

Key facts

Since marks a starting point in time and for marks a length of time.
A since-clause takes the past simple while the main clause stays in a perfect tense.
Born is a passive participle and needs a form of be: I was born, not I born or I have born.
Borne is the participle used for carrying or enduring, as in she has borne the cost.

Study next

Since and for with the present perfect and present perfect continuousThe passive be born and the separate participle bornePresent perfect continuous for an action still going on

Common traps

Matching the since-clause to the main clause tense because both feel perfect
Confusing was born with has borne

The since / for choice is also set as a substitution item: 'She has been studying for two o'clock' is corrected to 'studying since two o'clock' at 9 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.20.

The tense half of the same rule is keyed at 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.15, where 'Sivamani is working as an electrician for the past 22 years' takes has been working.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.