SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 9 of 99

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 divided into three segments. One of them may contain an error. Select the option that has the segment with the error. If you don’t find any error, select ‘No error’ as your answer. Mr. Ali’s shop / is further to / the hospital.

(a)No error
(b)Mr. Ali’s shop
(c)is further to
(d)the hospital.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. further is a comparative, and a comparative cannot be completed by to.

A comparison of distance is closed with than (further than the hospital) or with from (further from the hospital).

If the sentence instead means the shop stands beside the hospital, the segment has to become is next to or is close to.

Either way the printed string is further to will not stand, so the faulty segment is option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
No error — No error cannot stand, because the middle segment leaves further with no than, no from and no comparison of any kind to complete it.
(b)
Mr. Ali’s shop — Mr. Ali's shop is well formed. The singular possessive of Ali is Ali's, with the apostrophe before the s.
(d)
the hospital. — the hospital is an ordinary definite noun phrase. Nothing in it is at fault, and it is the segment before it that fails.

Concept

Error-spotting is done segment by segment, and a comparative is one of the most productive triggers SSC uses, because a comparative is never complete on its own.

Words in -er and phrases with more need than. Comparatives of distance also take from. What they never take is to.

So when a comparative sits next to a preposition of place, ask first whether the sentence is comparing anything at all. Here it is not — it is saying where a shop is.

Further to does exist as a fixed formal opener in correspondence, as in Further to your letter of 5 May, where it means following on from. That use is not available in a sentence describing where a shop stands.

Key facts

A comparative such as further, better or larger is completed by than, never by to.
Farther is the traditional choice for physical distance while further also covers degree and addition, but neither of them takes to.
Next to, close to and near are the phrases for one building standing beside another.

Study next

Comparatives and the words that complete them: than, fromFarther and further in careful usagePrepositions of place: next to, close to, opposite, beside

Common traps

Marking Mr. Ali's shop because the possessive apostrophe draws the eye.
Choosing No error because the sentence is short and sounds conversational.
Correcting further to farther and stopping there, when the preposition to is the real fault.

SSC sets error-spotting both as slash-separated segments and as parts offered directly in the options.

English Q.19 of this paper uses the second shape and keys It rain, where the fault is subject-verb agreement rather than a preposition.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.