SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 19 of 99

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 option that corrects the error in the given sentence. He ran quick to catch the bus.

(a)insipid
(b)rapid
(c)quiet
(d)quickly

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The word being modified is the verb ran, and a verb takes an adverb, never an adjective. Quick is the adjective form, so it cannot sit on ran.

Add the regular -ly and you get the manner adverb quickly, which answers the question how did he run.

He ran quickly to catch the bus → option (d).

The check is mechanical: find the word the modifier attaches to. Verb, adjective or another adverb means you need the adverb form.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
insipid — Insipid is an adjective meaning dull or without flavour. It repeats the original mistake, an adjective hung on a verb, and its sense has nothing to do with speed.
(b)
rapid — Rapid carries the right meaning in the wrong form — it is an adjective, so he ran rapid fails exactly as he ran quick does. The adverb needed would be rapidly.
(c)
quiet — Quiet is an adjective too, and it swaps the meaning: quiet is about noise, not speed. It also invites the standing spelling confusion with quite.

Concept

An adjective modifies a noun or pronoun. An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb.

Most adverbs of manner are built by adding -ly to the adjective: quick to quickly, rapid to rapidly, careful to carefully.

So the repair here is not a better word but the right form of the same word. Ask what the modifier attaches to: bus would take an adjective, ran takes an adverb.

Quick does survive as a flat adverb in informal speech — come quick, hold on tight — and dictionaries record that use.

SSC tests written standard English, where a verb of manner takes quickly, and the flat form is not among the options anyway.

Key facts

An adverb, not an adjective, modifies a verb — he ran quickly, not he ran quick.
Most manner adverbs are formed by adding -ly to the adjective, as quick becomes quickly.
Insipid means dull or lacking flavour and says nothing about speed.

Study next

Adjective against adverb after linking verbs: he looks good beside he sings wellAdverbs with no -ly: fast, hard, late, early, straightWords ending in -ly that are adjectives, not adverbs: friendly, lovely, cowardly

Common traps

Picking rapid because the meaning matches, and missing that the form is still an adjective.
Assuming every -ly word is an adverb, so friendly or lovely gets hung on a verb.

SSC builds this as a correction item where three options are adjectives and the fourth is the adverb, so the meaning of the distractors barely matters.

The identical adjective-for-adverb error is keyed at 19 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.8, where She sings good. is corrected to well. The neighbouring format is segment-error spotting, as at English Q.13 of this paper, which flags is superior than.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.