SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 12 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 option that substitutes the INCORRECTLY spelt word in the given sentence. In any time of crisis, there is always one mument that stands out from all the others.

(a)mumont
(b)mumunt
(c)moment
(d)momont

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The sentence prints mument. Set against the standard spelling moment, that is a one-letter fault: the first vowel should be o, not u.

Read the word in syllables — mo-ment — and the second vowel settles too. The ending is spelt -ment, with an e, as in movement, payment and comment.

Option (c) is the choice that gets both vowels right, so it is the substitution the stem asks for.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
mumont — Two vowels wrong instead of one. 'Mumont' keeps the paper's u in the first syllable and then swaps the e for an o, so it moves further from moment rather than closer.
(b)
mumunt — A u in both syllables. 'Mumunt' doubles the printed error where the word needs o and then e, and no English word carries that vowel pair.
(d)
momont — The ending gives it away. 'Momont' repairs the first vowel but writes the ending as -mont. The word ends -ment, the same ending as movement and payment.

Concept

This format does not test whether you can spell the printed word. It tests whether you can see which word was printed wrongly and then pick its standard form out of four near-identical strings.

Work in syllables. mo-ment carries one vowel per syllable, o then e, and each wrong option alters one or both of them.

Unstressed vowels are the usual casualty, because they are all pronounced as the same weak sound. Nothing in how -ment is said tells you whether it is written with e, o or u — only the written form does.

'Mument' is not an English word at all, so you are not choosing between two defensible spellings. You are restoring a word you already know how to write.

Key facts

Moment is spelt m-o-m-e-n-t, with o in the stressed syllable and e in the ending.
The unstressed ending -ment carries an e in movement, payment, argument and government.
An unstressed vowel is pronounced as a weak, colourless sound, which is why its spelling has to be learnt rather than heard.

Study next

Nouns ending in -ment whose stems are themselves misspelt, such as government and argumentUnstressed-vowel spellings that candidates reverse: separate, definite, independentThe spelling wrapper in which four whole words are printed and one is misspelt

Common traps

Correcting the wrong letter, when 'mument' differs from 'moment' only in its first vowel.
Choosing by ear, when all four options are pronounced almost identically.
Skimming the stem and marking the misspelt word instead of its correct replacement.

SSC prints spelling in more than one wrapper. Four bare words with one misspelt runs at 09 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.12 (Relevent) and 09 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.6 (Abismal).

The sentence-plus-correction shape used here also runs at 09 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.1, where 'I receieved a parcel in the mail' has to be repaired to received.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.