SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 4 of 95

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. I was upstaires when somebody rang the doorbell.

(a)Upstares
(b)Upstairs
(c)upsatires
(d)Upstaire

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The misspelt word is upstaires. The word is the compound up + stairs, and the plural noun keeps its own spelling inside the compound.

There is no silent e anywhere in it: stair, stairs, upstairs. The -es in "upstaires" is borrowed from plurals like boxes and wishes, and stair does not take that ending.

Rectified, the sentence reads: I was upstairs when somebody rang the doorbell → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Upstares — Upstares swaps the root stairs for stares, which is a different word meaning fixed looks. A spelling correction has to keep the root, and the root here is the noun stair.
(c)
upsatires — upsatires moves the a in front of the t, turning stairs into satires. Every letter of the answer is still present, which is exactly what lets the misprint slide past a quick reader.
(d)
Upstaire — Upstaire drops the s and adds a silent e. Neither move is available: the compound is built on the plural stairs and is written upstairs in every one of its uses.

Concept

This format hands you the sentence with the wrong spelling already in place and asks only for the correct spelling of that word. You are repairing an error, not hunting for one.

Upstairs is one word and keeps the plural stairs intact: u-p-s-t-a-i-r-s. It serves as an adverb (I was upstairs), an adjective (the upstairs room) and a noun (the upstairs of the house), and the spelling never changes.

The vowel run -ai- is what gets scrambled. Write the base word on its own — stairs — and attach up only afterwards.

Each wrong option keeps most of the letters and re-spells or reorders the vowel run, which is why the misprint reads smoothly in the sentence. Checking every option against the base word stairs, rather than against one another, settles it in one pass.

Key facts

Upstairs is written as a single word and carries the s of the plural stairs.
Stairs is the plural of stair, and stair takes a plain -s rather than -es.
Upstairs is spelt the same whether it works as an adverb, an adjective or a noun.
Stares, a homophone of stairs, is an unrelated word meaning fixed looks.

Study next

Directional compounds written as one word, such as downstairs, indoors and outdoorsHomophone pairs that spelling items exploit, such as stairs and staresWhen an English noun takes -es rather than a plain -s in the plural

Common traps

Reading the sentence for sense and skimming past the misprint because it sounds right
Choosing upstares because stares is itself a correctly spelt English word
Assuming the shortest option must be the correct spelling

SSC prints this exact rubric — the sentence, then the correct spelling of the identified word — at 10 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.17 (descendant) and at 25 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.5 (truly).

A close cousin runs inside this same 11 Sep 2024, 09:00 sitting at English Q.18, where you must identify the misspelt word first and then correct it (acquaintance).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.