SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 1 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. Definitions of _________ are subjective to various interpretations.

(a)soverenty
(b)sovereignty
(c)sovereinity
(d)suvereignty

Answer

Why

Correct — B. sovereignty is the only spelling that keeps the whole stem sovereign intact and then adds the noun ending -ty, so option (b) is the one to mark.

The trap is the silent g. Sovereign is written like reign, and that g survives into sovereignty even though nobody pronounces it.

Nothing in the sentence decides this. All four options would sit in the blank after "Definitions of", so the item is pure spelling recall.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
soverenty — soverenty loses the -eign- altogether and writes -eren-. Once the stem sovereign is gone the word does not exist in English.
(c)
sovereinity — sovereinity drops the silent g and adds an extra i. It is the near-miss of the set, built to look right at a glance.
(d)
suvereignty — suvereignty gets the stem and the silent g right but wrecks the first vowel, suv- for sov-. The word is built on sovereign, never suvereign.

Concept

SSC's fill-in-the-blank spelling item hands you four versions of one word and asks which is the dictionary spelling. The sentence is there only to tell you which word is meant.

So work from the stem. sovereignty is sovereign plus -ty, and any option that misspells sovereign is out before you weigh anything else.

Sovereign belongs to a small group of English words carrying a g that is written and not said: reign, foreign, campaign, sign.

There is no grammatical clue at all here. All four options are nouns and all four fit the slot, so a candidate who reads the sentence twice has spent time for nothing.

Key facts

sovereignty is spelt sovereign + ty, keeping the silent g.
The same written-but-unsaid g appears in reign, foreign, campaign and sign.
The abstract noun of sovereign is sovereignty, not sovereinity or sovereignity.

Study next

Silent-letter spellings in the -gn family: reign, foreign, campaign, signAbstract-noun endings -ty, -cy and -ness added to an adjective stemWords whose noun form reshapes the stem, such as maintain to maintenance and occur to occurrence

Common traps

Reading the sentence for a grammar clue when all four options fill the slot equally well.
Choosing sovereinity because the first six letters look right.
Dropping the silent g, which is easy to do when you spell the word by ear.

The instruction line repeats word for word with a different target underneath — also asked 17 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.13 (repugnance) and 23 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.14 (accurately).

The same root turns up on the other side of a question at 19 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.20, where Sovereign is keyed as the one-word substitute for a person who has supreme power or authority.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.