SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 5 of 98

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 most appropriate meaning of the given word. Illiterate

(a)A person who cannot read and write
(b)A person who cannot speak
(c)One who is well-educated
(d)Highly rated thing

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Illiterate is the negative of literate, and literate means able to read and write.

The prefix is il-, the shape the negative in- takes before an l: illegal, illogical, illegible.

Strip the prefix, read the stem, then put the negative back: a person who cannot read and write → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
A person who cannot speak — Being unable to speak is mute, a different matter altogether. Literacy is about the written language, and a fluent speaker can be illiterate.
(c)
One who is well-educated — Well-educated is roughly literate — the word with its negative prefix removed. The il- reverses the meaning, so this is the opposite of what is asked.
(d)
Highly rated thing — Highly rated thing describes an object, while illiterate describes a person. Nothing in literate or its negative touches on rating or value.

Concept

The Latin negative prefix in- changes shape to suit the letter that follows it, and recognising the shapes unlocks a large group of words.

It becomes im- before b, m and p: impossible, immoral, imbalance. It becomes il- before l: illegal, illiterate. It becomes ir- before r: irregular, irrational. Everywhere else it stays in-: inaccurate, invisible.

So illiterate is not a word to memorise on its own. It is in- plus literate, and literate goes back to Latin littera, a letter of the alphabet — the same root under literature and obliterate.

In everyday use illiterate is sometimes stretched to mean uneducated or ignorant in a general way. The option set here keeps to the strict sense, and the strict sense is what the key rewards.

Key facts

Illiterate is il- (not) plus literate: unable to read and write.
The negative prefix in- becomes im- before b, m and p, il- before l, and ir- before r.
Literate comes from Latin littera, meaning a letter of the alphabet.
Obliterate shares that root — it is to strike the letters out.

Study next

Assimilated negative prefixes: illegal, immature, irrational, inaccurateOne-word substitutions for people defined by a lack: anonymous, apathetic, agnosticWords built on Latin littera: literal, literature, obliterate

Common traps

Stretching illiterate to uneducated in general rather than unable to read and write
Skimming past the il- and selecting the positive definition
Choosing an option that describes a thing when the word describes a person

The instruction Select the most appropriate meaning of the given word hands you a bare word with no sentence, so the prefix and the stem are the only evidence there is.

It runs the same way at 09 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.5 (Edible, keyed to nutritive) and 18 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.16 (Pugnacious, keyed to Waspish).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.