SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 13 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 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 most appropriate option to substitute the underlined segment in the given sentence. A computer can’t function without it’s mother board.

(a)its
(b)it is
(c)their
(d)his

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The slot after 'without' needs a possessive determiner in front of 'mother board', and the possessive of 'it' is its, written with no apostrophe.

It's with an apostrophe is only ever the contraction of 'it is' or 'it has', which is exactly why the printed sentence is wrong.

Corrected, it reads 'A computer can't function without its mother board' — option (c) and option (d) change the pronoun instead of fixing the apostrophe, so option (a) is the substitute.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
it is — 'It is' expands the very contraction the sentence misuses. 'Without it is mother board' puts a finite clause where a determiner belongs, so the phrase collapses.
(c)
their — Their is plural. The subject is 'a computer', singular, so this dodges the apostrophe error and breaks number agreement instead.
(d)
his — His is the masculine personal possessive. A computer is inanimate, so English assigns it 'its', not a gendered pronoun.

Concept

English keeps apart two forms that sound identical. Its is the possessive determiner of 'it', in the same class as 'his', 'her' and 'their'. It's is a contraction of 'it is' or 'it has'.

Neither the possessive determiners (my, your, his, her, its, our, their) nor the possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs) take an apostrophe. In English an apostrophe marks possession on a noun — 'the computer's board' — or a missing letter.

The quick check is substitution: read 'it is' into the slot, and if the sentence breaks, the word wanted is 'its'.

The sentence also prints 'mother board' as two words where 'motherboard' is the usual spelling, but the underlined segment is the pronoun alone, so spelling is not what is being marked here.

Key facts

Its is possessive and it's is the contraction of 'it is' or 'it has'.
No possessive determiner and no possessive pronoun in English carries an apostrophe.
Substituting 'it is' into the slot is the fastest test of which form the sentence wants.

Study next

Your versus you're, and their versus they're versus thereApostrophe placement for possession on singular and plural nounsPronoun and antecedent agreement with singular inanimate subjects

Common traps

Assuming the apostrophe marks possession here, as it would on a noun
Switching to 'their' to avoid the apostrophe and breaking number agreement instead

SSC buries the test inside an ordinary sentence and underlines just the pronoun — the same substitute-the-segment instruction runs at English Q.4 of this shift and at 17 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.7.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.