SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 4 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 option to fill in the blank. Ram went to _____ an ice cream.

(a)buy
(b)byre
(c)by
(d)bye

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Read the slot before you read the options. The blank sits between to and the object an ice cream, so the sentence needs a verb in the to-infinitive: Ram went to (do something) (something).

Buy is the only verb among the four, and it takes a direct object, so an ice cream lands where it belongs → option (a).

The other three are built on the same sound /baɪ/ and are a preposition, an interjection and a noun. None of them can head an infinitive.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
byre — A byre is a cowshed. It is a noun, so went to byre an ice cream leaves the sentence with no verb after to and no way to attach the object.
(c)
by — By is a preposition of agent, means or position. Went to by an ice cream stacks two prepositions and never reaches the verb the infinitive needs.
(d)
bye — Bye is a farewell, or in a tournament a free pass to the next round. It is a noun or interjection and cannot take an object.

Concept

This is a homophone item: one sound, several spellings, several words. Where those spellings belong to different word classes, grammar settles it outright, which is what happens here. Where they are the same class, meaning has to do the work.

So work in this order: read what the slot demands, name the word class, then pick the spelling that is that class.

Here the frame went to ___ an ice cream demands a transitive verb. That single test removes byre, by and bye without your needing to know what a byre is.

Byre is a near-homophone rather than an exact one, but the option set is still built on one sound, and the grammar test settles the item either way.

Key facts

Buy is a verb meaning to purchase, with bought as both past tense and past participle.
By is a preposition marking agent, means or position, as in written by her and stood by the gate.
Bye is a noun or interjection: a farewell, or in a tournament a free pass to the next round.
A byre is a cowshed.

Study next

Homophone sets SSC reuses: capital and capitol, flour and flower, bear and bareDeciding the part of speech a blank demands before choosing between spellingsSpelling-error items, where the same confusable words appear misspelt rather than misused

Common traps

Picking by, because the ear hears no difference and the eye is used to reading past it.
Assuming the blank wants a noun because a noun phrase follows it.
Eliminating byre on unfamiliarity rather than on grammar, which works here but fails when the odd word is the answer.

SSC sets homophones as a fill-in-the-blank with the confusable spellings as options, and what decides the answer varies. Here it is word class: only a verb can follow to and take an object.

Where both spellings are the same part of speech, meaning decides instead — capitol and capital at 19 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.5, and flour and flower at 26 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.16. Bear and bare is set at 25 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.15.

A blunter version at 13 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.19 names the device outright: the homophone for the word 'there' is ______.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.