SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 11 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.

The following sentence has been split into four segments. Identify the segment that contains a grammatical error. Having known that / the train was already on the platform, / they ran fastly / to catch it.

(a)they ran fastly
(b)Having known that
(c)to catch it
(d)the train was already on the platform

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The fault is fastly, which is not a word in standard English.

Fast belongs to the small set whose adverb form is identical to the adjective: a fast train (adjective), the train ran fast (adverb). There is no -ly form to add.

The segment should read 'they ran fast', so option (a) is the one carrying the grammatical error.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Having known that — Having known that is a perfect participle opening an idea that precedes the main action. It is heavier than 'Knowing that', but weight is style, not a grammatical error.
(c)
to catch it — to catch it is an infinitive of purpose — they ran in order to catch the train — and 'it' points back to 'the train'. Form and reference are both sound.
(d)
the train was already on the platform — was already on the platform keeps the past tense in step with 'ran', and 'already' sits correctly between the verb and what follows it. Nothing here breaks.

Concept

SSC's error-spotting items lean hard on adverb formation. Most adjectives take -ly to become adverbs (quick to quickly), but a handful, called flat adverbs, keep the same form in both jobs: fast, hard, late, early, straight, high, long.

'Fastly' is the invented -ly this family attracts. The test is what the word modifies: 'ran' is a verb, so an adverb is needed, and the adverb of fast is fast.

Several of these words do have an -ly twin, but it means something else: hardly means barely, lately means recently, and nearly means almost. Fast has no twin at all, which is why 'fastly' reads as a plausible word and is not one.

Key facts

The adverb of fast is fast, and there is no word 'fastly' in standard English.
Flat adverbs keep the adjective form: fast, hard, late, early, straight, high, long.
Where an -ly twin exists it usually carries a different sense, as hardly does against hard.
An action verb such as 'ran' takes an adverb, not an adjective.

Study next

Flat adverbs and their -ly twins: hard and hardly, late and lately, near and nearlyAdjective after a linking verb against adverb after an action verbDouble comparatives such as 'more better' and 'very louder' in error-spotting items

Common traps

Marking 'Having known that' because a formal participle sounds suspicious.
Adding -ly by reflex to any adjective that follows a verb.
Assuming the error must lie in the longest segment of the four.

Adverb form is reliable picking in error-spotting. 'extremely good' for 'extremely well' at 9 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.11; 'violent banged' for 'violently banged' at 11 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.14; 'bad injured' for 'badly injured' at 26 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.8.

SSC sometimes names the fault in the stem itself — 'Identify the segment that contains an adverbial usage error' at 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.11.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.