SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 13 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 21 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Choose the most suitable option to replace the highlighted part of the sentence: The judge declared the prisoner as guilty.

(a)guilty for
(b)guilty
(c)as being guilty
(d)guilty to crime

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The trigger is the verb declared. Declare takes its object and then a complement describing it, with nothing in between: declared the prisoner guilty, declared him the winner.

Verbs such as regard and describe need as ('regarded him as guilty'). Declare, in this pattern, does not.

So the highlighted 'as guilty' becomes simply 'guilty': 'The judge declared the prisoner guilty.'

Why the others are wrong

(a)
guilty for — Drops 'as' but adds a wrong preposition. Guilty takes of before an offence (guilty of theft), and with nothing after it, 'for' dangles at the end.
(c)
as being guilty — Keeps the redundant as and adds 'being'. Declare takes the complement directly, so this is wordier and still non-standard.
(d)
guilty to crime — Wrong preposition: guilty takes of (guilty of a crime). 'Guilty to' goes with plead, as in 'pleaded guilty to the charge', which is not the verb here.

Concept

Some verbs take an object followed directly by a complement that describes it: declare, find, call, make. 'The jury found him guilty.' 'They made her captain.'

Other verbs join the object and the description with as: regard, describe, see, treat. 'We regard him as a leader.'

Which group the verb belongs to decides whether 'as' stays. Declare is in the first group, so 'as guilty' loses its 'as'.

Options (c) and (d) look fuller and more formal, which is their pull. Each adds words the sentence cannot carry.

Key facts

Declare + object + complement takes no 'as': 'The court declared the contract void.'
Regard, describe and see need 'as': 'She is regarded as the best player.'
Guilty takes 'of' before the offence: 'guilty of fraud'.
'To' goes with plead: 'He pleaded guilty to the charge.'

Study next

Object complements: verbs that take one directly (make, call, find) and verbs that take 'as' (regard, describe)Adjective + preposition pairs: guilty of, capable of, aware ofRedundant words in sentence improvement

Common traps

Keeping 'as' because 'declared as guilty' sounds formal — declare does not take it.
Picking (d) from the phrase 'plead guilty to' — the verb here is declared, and guilty's own preposition is of.

The same instruction, 'Choose the most suitable option to replace the highlighted part of the sentence', with the error inside the highlight, is used at 15 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.17 ('avoids to go') and 14 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.20 ('confident to pass').

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Sentence improvement — all 133 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.