SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 8 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.

Parts of the following sentence have been given as options. Select the option that contains an error. Rahul thinks he is as smarter as his friends in the class.

(a)his friends
(b)he is as smarter as
(c)Rahul thinks
(d)in the class

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The faulty segment is option (b), he is as smarter as.

The frame as ... as states equality and takes the adjective in its positive degree: as smart as.

Smarter is the comparative degree, and the comparative takes than: smarter than his friends.

The sentence welds one frame to the other, which is a double comparison. Either as smart as his friends or smarter than his friends is correct English, and the segment as written is neither.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
his friends — his friends is a plural noun with its possessive adjective, and it is what the comparison is made against. Nothing in these two words is at fault.
(c)
Rahul thinks — Rahul thinks is a singular subject with a present-simple verb, the normal tense for an opinion held now. The reported clause after it may keep the present too, so there is no error.
(d)
in the class — in the class is the idiomatic phrase for the group of classmates being compared. It is a correct prepositional phrase and the sentence needs it where it stands.

Concept

English compares in three degrees — positive (smart), comparative (smarter), superlative (smartest) — and each degree owns its own frame.

Positive: as smart as, not so smart as.
Comparative: smarter than, more careful than.
Superlative: the smartest in the class.

A double comparison puts two markers on one adjective, or drops one degree into the frame of another. More smarter, most cleverest and as smarter as are all the same fault.

In this format three segments are ordinary and one carries the rule being tested. When a comparison appears anywhere in the sentence, check it first — it is the segment carrying structure, and the others are usually plain noun and verb phrases.

Key facts

The as ... as frame takes the positive degree of the adjective, as in as smart as.
The comparative degree takes than, as in smarter than.
Using a comparative inside the as ... as frame, or more with an -er form, is a double comparison and is an error.

Study next

Comparative and superlative frames: than, of all, in the classComparatives that take to instead of than: superior to, inferior to, senior toDouble comparison errors such as more better and most easiest

Common traps

Reading the sentence for meaning, which is perfectly clear, instead of testing each segment against a rule
Marking Rahul thinks as the error on a belief that reported thought must take a past-tense verb

English Q.11 of this shift tests the same family of rules, keying the error to as his health is not more good, where the fault is the comparative form of good. Both items reward finding the comparison and testing its frame.

The same comparative fault is keyed at 10 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.18, where the error segment is so better as.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.