SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 3 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.

The following sentence has been split into four segments. Identify the segment that contains a grammatical error. My dog / barks / very louder / at night.

(a)at night
(b)barks
(c)very louder
(d)My dog

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The faulty segment is very louder.

very intensifies the positive degree — very loud, very loudly. A comparative is intensified by much, far or a lot: much louder, far louder.

A comparative also needs a second term to compare with. The sentence supplies none — no than-phrase, no other dog, no other time of day.

Both faults disappear in the positive degree: My dog barks very loudly at night. The segment carrying the error is option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
at night — at night is the standard adverbial for the hours of darkness and takes no article, like at noon and at dawn. Nothing in the phrase is faulty.
(b)
barks — barks is the correct third-person singular present for the subject my dog, and the simple present is the right tense for a habit repeated every night.
(d)
My dog — My dog is a possessive determiner with a singular countable noun, which makes a complete subject, and it agrees with the verb barks.

Concept

Error spotting on degree of comparison can be settled by form alone, without deciding what the sentence means.

Three signals give it away. very placed in front of a comparative or superlative. A comparative with no than and nothing to compare against. A doubled comparative such as more better or so better as.

The repair is to move to the degree the sentence can actually support. With one dog and one habit and no comparison in sight, that degree is the positive: very loudly.

Louder is a perfectly good adverb — my dog barks louder than the neighbours' does is correct English. The fault lies in very, and in a comparison the sentence never sets up.

Key facts

Very intensifies the positive degree, while much, far and a lot intensify the comparative.
A comparative form needs a second term of comparison, usually introduced by than.
Louder works as an adverb after a verb like barks, so the fault here is the degree rather than the part of speech.

Study next

Double comparatives such as more better and not more goodLatin comparatives that take to rather than than, such as superior, inferior, senior and preferAdverbs of manner and where they sit in relation to the verb

Common traps

Marking barks as wrong because the -s ending looks plural beside a singular subject.
Accepting very louder because it sounds natural in speech, where a comparative is often used with no stated comparison.

The same degree fault recurs in other frames. At 10 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.18 the keyed segment is so better as, and at 11 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.11 it is as his health is not more good.

The Latin-comparative version turns up at 12 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.13, where is superior than is the faulty segment.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.