SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 15 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 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 INCORRECTLY spelt word.

(a)Possession
(b)Referred
(c)Weather
(d)Unfourseen

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The word is unforeseen — un- plus fore- (before) plus seen, meaning not seen coming.

The paper prints Unfourseen, which spells the number four into the middle of it. The prefix is f-o-r-e, as in foresee and forecast, never f-o-u-r — option (d).

The other three are spelt correctly. Possession carries four s's in two pairs, referred doubles its r before -ed, and weather is the word for rain and sun, spelt exactly as printed.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Possession — Possession is correct — poss-ess-ion, four s's in two pairs. The run of s's looks excessive, which is what makes it a tempting wrong pick.
(b)
Referred — Referred is correct. Refer stresses its second syllable, so the final r doubles before -ed, the same rule that gives preferred and occurred.
(c)
Weather — Weather is correct as printed. Its homophone is whether, the conjunction, and only a misreading turns this into the misspelling.

Concept

Unforeseen is built from three pieces: un- (not), fore- (before) and seen. Anything unforeseen was not seen coming.

That fore- opens foresee, forecast, foreword and forewarn, and it is spelt f-o-r-e every time. The number four is f-o-u-r and never appears inside these words.

The second rule this item leans on is consonant doubling. A two-syllable verb stressed on its last syllable doubles the final consonant before -ed or -ing: refer gives referred, prefer gives preferred, occur gives occurred.

Keep foreword (the piece at the front of a book) apart from forward (the direction). Both are correct spellings, of different words.

Key facts

Unforeseen is spelt un plus fore plus seen, with fore meaning before.
The prefix is f-o-r-e in foresee, forecast, foreword and forewarn.
Refer doubles its r before -ed because the stress falls on the second syllable.
Possession contains four s's, arranged in two pairs.

Study next

The fore- prefix family: foresee, forecast, forewarn, forewordConsonant doubling before -ed and -ing when the stress is on the final syllableHomophone pairs that surface in spelling items: weather and whether, foreword and forward

Common traps

Picking possession because the run of s's looks like a mistake.
Picking weather on the assumption that whether was intended.
Reading unfourseen at speed and hearing a correct word, since the misspelling sounds identical to unforeseen.

SSC prints four words and asks for the one spelt wrong, with a single letter, a doubled consonant or a swapped vowel pair out of place.

Mischievious for mischievous is set at 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.10, Recieve for receive at 26 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.19, and Relevent for relevant at 9 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.12.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.