SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 14 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 correct spelling to fill in the blank. I often fail to ______ remember someone’s name.

(a)acusatively
(b)accurately
(c)accuratially
(d)accuriately

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Just one option is a real English word. Accurately is accurate + ly, and accurate is spelt with a double c and a single r: a-c-c-u-r-a-t-e.

The -ly is added to the finished adjective with nothing else touched — no extra i, no -ial before it. Option (b) is the spelling that survives.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
acusatively — Acusatively is a misspelling of accusatively, which itself takes a double c. Even spelt properly it would mean in an accusing manner, which the blank does not want.
(c)
accuratially — Accuratially invents an -ial before the -ly. The adjective is accurate, and there is no form accuratial for an adverb to be built on.
(d)
accuriately — Accuriately slips an extra i into the stem. The adjective is accurate, with no i sitting between the r and the a.

Concept

This spelling item offers one real word and three deformations of it. Fix the base word first, then check what the suffix does to it.

Here the base is accurate — double c, single r. The adverb is made by adding -ly to the whole adjective, giving accurately. Nothing is dropped and nothing is inserted.

Two exceptions to the -ly rule are worth holding: adjectives in -ic take -ally (basic becomes basically), and adjectives ending in a consonant plus -le drop the e (simple becomes simply).

The blank sits inside "I often fail to ______ remember someone's name", but the sentence is only a frame. The item is decided on spelling, and only one option is spelt like a word at all.

Key facts

Accurate takes a double c and a single r, and its adverb is simply accurate + ly.
Adjectives ending in -ic form their adverb in -ally, as basic does in basically.
Accusative is also spelt with a double c, so option (a) is misspelt on its own terms.

Study next

High-frequency double-consonant words such as accommodate, occurrence and embarrassAdverb formation from adjectives, including the -ic to -ally ruleSpelling items whose distractors deform the suffix rather than the stem

Common traps

Reading for meaning first and losing time on whether accurately really fits the sentence
Accepting accuriately, because one extra vowel is easy to miss at exam speed

SSC varies the frame: pick the correct spelling for a blank, correct the misspelt word inside a sentence, or pick the incorrectly spelt word from a list. The same shift uses the second at English Q.7, where acommodate has to become accommodate, and 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.10 uses the third.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Fill in the blank — all 40 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.