SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 19 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.

Select the most appropriate homophone to fill in the blank. The ointment will help to _____ the wound.

(a)kneel
(b)he’ll
(c)heal
(d)heel

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The blank follows help to, so only a verb can stand in it, and the meaning the sentence needs is to cure.

Heal is that verb: to make a wound sound again. The ointment will help to heal the wound.

Its sound-alikes are a noun and a contraction. Heel is the back of the foot and he'll is he will, and neither can follow help to → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
kneel — Kneel means to rest on your knees. It is a verb, so the slot accepts it, but you cannot kneel a wound — and it rhymes with heal rather than being its homophone.
(b)
he’ll — He'll is the contraction of he will. A subject with a modal cannot follow help to, and the clause already has its subject, the ointment.
(d)
heel — Heel is a noun — the back of the foot or of a shoe. The slot after to needs a verb, and healing is what an ointment does to a wound.

Concept

A homophone item hands you words that sound alike and asks which one the sentence accepts on both counts: grammar and meaning.

Take grammar first. The slot after help to is a verb slot, which throws out the noun heel and the contraction he'll before you weigh any meaning at all.

Then take meaning. An ointment closes a wound, so of the verbs left the sentence wants heal.

Only three of the four options are true homophones of one another. Kneel merely rhymes, and its initial consonant differs — it is in the set to catch a candidate reading by ear alone.

Key facts

Heal is a verb meaning to make sound or well again.
Heel is a noun — the back of the foot or of a shoe.
He'll is the contraction of he will and can never fill a verb slot on its own.
Kneel rhymes with heal but is not its homophone, because the opening sounds differ.

Study next

Homophone sets SSC reuses: heal and heel, flour and floor, scent and sent and centVerb slots created by help to, made to, let and other infinitive triggersContractions offered as options: he'll, we'll, they're, it's

Common traps

Choosing heel because its spelling is closest to heal
Accepting kneel as a homophone because it rhymes

The stem is reused with a different set in other 2024 papers you can practise on — flour and floor at 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.4, rode and road at 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.2, and scent, sent and cent at 26 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.11.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.