SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 10 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 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. His house is smaller than you .

(a)is smaller than your
(b)is smaller than yours
(c)is small as you
(d)is small than you

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The comparison is between two houses, so whatever follows than has to stand for a house, not for a person.

yours is a possessive pronoun: it already contains its noun. "His house is smaller than yours" reads as "His house is smaller than your house".

The comparative smaller ... than is already correct in the printed sentence, so only the second half of the comparison needs repair, and option (b) repairs exactly that.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
is smaller than your — your is a possessive determiner, not a pronoun: it must be followed by a noun, as in "than your house". Left bare at the end of the sentence it has nothing to modify.
(c)
is small as you — The fixed frame is as small as, and this drops the opening "as". It also leaves the house being compared with a person.
(d)
is small than you — than requires the comparative form smaller; the positive degree "small" cannot take it, and "you" still names a person rather than a house.

Concept

One thing is wrong in the printed sentence, and it is parallelism. A comparison must set like against like, and "His house is smaller than you" measures a building against a person.

Degree is not the fault here: the paper already prints smaller ... than. Two of the options put a degree error back in, which is a different way of failing.

English repairs that with the possessive pronouns — mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs — each of which replaces a determiner plus its noun and needs nothing after it.

The paper prints the sentence as "His house is smaller than you ." The stray space before the full stop belongs to the response sheet and carries no meaning.

Every option restates the verb as well as the comparison, which tells you the underlined segment runs from "is" to the end.

Key facts

Possessive determiners — my, your, his, her, our, their — must be followed by a noun.
Possessive pronouns — mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs — replace determiner plus noun and stand alone.
A comparison built on "than" takes the comparative degree, so smaller and not small.
The "as ... as" frame needs both halves, which is why "small as you" is incomplete.

Study next

Possessive determiners against possessive pronouns: your and yours, their and theirsParallel comparison, where a thing is compared with a thing and not with its ownerDegree of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative with than and as ... as

Common traps

Choosing "than your", which sounds natural aloud but leaves the determiner with no noun.
Reading only the first words of each option and missing that (c) and (d) drop the comparative.
Assuming the sentence is sound because "smaller than" is already in it.

The sentence is grammatical everywhere except the far side of the comparison, and the options differ by a single letter: your against yours.

Faulty comparison is also asked 23 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.8 ("intellectually superior than him") and 26 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.2 ("always works latest than me").

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.