Identify the INCORRECTLY spelt word in the following sentence and select its correct spelling from the given options. His acquiantance with the author led to many fruitful collaborations.

Correct — B. The sentence prints acquiantance, with the vowels of the stem transposed.

Rebuild the word instead of eyeballing it: it is the verb acquaint with the noun suffix -ance added, a-c-q-u-a-i-n-t + a-n-c-e.

So the vowels after qu run ai, not ia, and the tail is -ance: acquaintance, option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  acuiantance — Drops the q. This word spells its /kw/ sound qu, as acquaint and quaint do, never cu — and it still carries the ia transposition from the sentence.
• (c)
  aquaintance — Loses the c of acq-. The c is not pronounced, which is why writers drop it, but it is written in acquaint, acquire and acquit alike.
• (d)
  acquaintence — Right until the suffix, then writes -ence. The noun ends -ance, like maintenance and resemblance, because it is built straight onto acquaint.

SSC spelling items turn on one letter or one pair of letters, so recognising the word by its shape is not enough — three of the four options look like the word.

The reliable move is to rebuild it from a stem you can already spell. acquaint plus -ance fixes the c, the qu, the order of ai and the suffix in one pass.

The same rebuild settles the family: acquire, acquisition, acquittal all keep acq.

Key facts

• The noun is acquaint + -ance, spelt a-c-q-u-a-i-n-t-a-n-c-e.
• The opening cluster is acq-, as in acquire, acquisition and acquittal.
• The suffix is -ance, not -ence.

Common traps

• Reading the sentence for meaning instead of scanning the flagged word letter by letter.
• Spelling by ear, which drops the silent c of acq-.
• Stopping at the stem and never checking whether the suffix is -ance or -ence.

No directly related past PYQ was found.