SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 1 · 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 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.

Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words. Cannot be corrected

(a)Incorrigible
(b)Illegible
(c)Incredible
(d)Ineligible

Answer

Why

Correct — A. All four options open with the negative prefix in-, so the prefix decides nothing. The root does.

Corrigible is built on Latin corrigere, to correct — the same root that gives corrigenda, the list of corrections printed at the front of a book.

Negate it and incorrigible means exactly not able to be corrected → option (a).

In use it describes a person or a habit that no amount of correction reforms.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Illegible — Illegible is built on Latin legere, to read, so it means cannot be read. That is a fault of handwriting, not of behaviour.
(c)
Incredible — Incredible is built on credere, to believe, so it means cannot be believed. The root names belief, and the stem asks about correction.
(d)
Ineligible — Ineligible is built on eligere, to choose out, so it means not qualified to be chosen. It negates eligibility, not correctability.

Concept

A one-word substitute of this kind is a root question wearing a prefix. When every option carries the same negation, the prefix is noise.

Strip it and read what is left: corrigible, legible, credible, eligible. Each is a Latin verb plus -ible, able to be done, so each negated form means cannot be done.

Now match the root to the word in the stem. The stem says corrected, so the root has to be corrigere and nothing else on the list qualifies.

In- assimilates to the letter it precedes, which is why illegible and irregular look like different prefixes. They are not — the spelling change is only for ease of pronunciation.

Key facts

Incorrigible means not able to be corrected or reformed, from Latin corrigere, to correct.
Illegible means not able to be read, from Latin legere, to read.
Incredible means not able to be believed, from Latin credere, to believe.
The prefix in- becomes il- before l and ir- before r, as in illegible and irregular.

Study next

Latin -ible and -able roots behind common SSC one-word substitutesOne-word substitutes framed as cannot be done, such as invincible for cannot be conquered

Common traps

Choosing incredible because it is the most familiar word on the list.
Reading ineligible as illegible, since the two look alike at exam speed.
Answering from the prefix, which all four options share and which therefore proves nothing.

SSC phrases this family as a bare definition with no sentence, so the whole item is a root match.

That which cannot be conquered, keyed to Invincible, is at 12 Sep 2024, 9:00, English Q.18.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.