SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 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 6 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 word segment that can substitute the bracketed word segment correctly and complete the sentence meaningfully. (Each participant have) performed well.

(a)Each participant has
(b)Each participant were
(c)Each participant was
(d)Each participant have been

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The trigger is Each. A subject introduced by each is grammatically singular, whatever noun follows it, so the verb must be singular: each participant has.

The bracketed segment 'Each participant have' is the start of a present perfect verb, completed by 'performed well' outside the brackets.

So the repair has to fix the agreement and keep the tense: has + performed well. Option (a) is the only segment that does both.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Each participant were — Were is plural and each is singular. It also abandons the perfect tense, giving 'Each participant were performed well', which is not English.
(c)
Each participant was — Was is singular, so the agreement is repaired — but 'was performed well' turns the sentence passive and says the participant was performed. The verb needed is has performed.
(d)
Each participant have been — Have been is still plural after each, and 'have been performed well' is passive as well. Neither fault in the original is fixed.

Concept

Each, every, either, neither and one of are singular. The verb agrees with them, not with any plural noun sitting nearby.

Each participant has performed.
Every student is present.
Neither of the answers is correct.

The second thing this item tests is quieter: a substituted segment must fit the words left outside the brackets. 'Performed well' is fixed, so only a present perfect auxiliary completes the sentence in the active voice.

Each stays singular even when a plural noun follows it — 'each of the participants has performed well'. The noun in between never takes control of the verb.

Key facts

Each is always singular and takes a singular verb.
In 'each of the players has', the verb agrees with each, not with players.
A segment substitution must preserve the sentence's tense, not only repair its agreement.

Study next

Subject-verb agreement with either, neither and noneAgreement in 'one of the + plural noun + who' clausesTelling active from passive when only an auxiliary changes

Common traps

Choosing was because it is singular, without noticing that it makes the rest of the sentence passive.
Letting the plural noun beside the verb pull the agreement away from each.

SSC tests this in two formats. Here it is a bracketed segment to replace, the same format used on 26 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.3.
As a spot-the-error item the rule appears on 09 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.16, where 'Every students in the hostel' is the keyed error.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.