SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 14 of 100

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 6 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 correct spelling to fill in the blank. Subir’s long absence is likely to have _____ for employees in the office.

(a)reperrcussions
(b)rapercussions
(c)repercussions
(d)repercusions

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The word is built on percussion, so everything after the prefix re- is spelt exactly as percussion is: one r after the p, and a double s in -cussion.

Only repercussions keeps both of those: option (c).

It means the unintended consequences that follow an event, which is what a long absence from the office produces for the people left behind.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
reperrcussions — reperrcussions doubles the r in the middle. Percussion has a single r after the p, and adding re- in front changes nothing inside the root.
(b)
rapercussions — rapercussions replaces the prefix re- with ra-. The word means a striking back, and the back is carried by re-, so the vowel is not free to move.
(d)
repercusions — repercusions drops one s. The -cussion ending is fixed across percussion, concussion and discussion, so a single s is always a misspelling here.

Concept

Spelling items are winnable by decomposition: strip the prefix, spell the root you already know, then reattach.

The root here is percussion, which most candidates can spell because of percussion instruments. It carries one r and two s's, and re- leaves that untouched.

The same move handles the whole family — concussion, discussion, repercussion — all of which end in -cussion, from the Latin for strike.

The four options here are one correct word beside three single-error variants, so the fastest route is to name the error in each rather than judge which one looks right.

Key facts

Repercussion means an unintended consequence that follows an action or event.
It is built on percussion, which has one r after the p and a double s.
Concussion, discussion and percussion all share the same -cussion ending.

Study next

The -ssion and -sion endings, and which roots take whichPrefix stripping as a spelling method, over roots shared by re-, con- and dis-High-frequency SSC misspellings with doubled consonants, such as accommodate and embarrass

Common traps

Doubling the r because the middle of the word feels heavy when spoken.
Accepting repercusions, since a single s still reads correctly at speed.
Changing the prefix to ra- on the strength of how the word sounds aloud.

Spelling also appears in this shift's English section at Q.4, a bare correctly-spelt-word item where Privilege is the key. This fill-in version differs in that the sentence has to tell you which word is wanted before you can spell it.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.