SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 20 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 11 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: Had I known about the traffic, I will leave early.

(a)would have left earlier
(b)would leave early
(c)had left earlier
(d)would left earlier

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The trigger is Had I known: an if-clause with if dropped and had moved before the subject. It means 'If I had known'.

A past perfect if-clause describes a past that did not happen — I did not know. Its result clause takes would have + past participle.

So will leave, a real-future form, becomes would have left → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
would leave early — Would + base verb answers a past-simple if-clause (If I knew, I would leave). Here the condition is past perfect and the leaving belongs to the same past occasion, so the result is would have left.
(c)
had left earlier — Had left repeats the past perfect in the result clause and drops the modal. A third-conditional result needs would have: I would have left earlier.
(d)
would left earlier — Would left puts a past-tense form straight after a modal. A modal is followed by the base form, so the correct string is would have left.

Concept

The third conditional describes a past that did not happen: If + past perfect, would have + past participle. 'If I had known, I would have left earlier' means I did not know and did not leave early.

Inversion drops if and moves had in front of the subject: 'Had I known' = 'If I had known'. The result clause does not change.

Putting will in the result clause breaks the pattern, and that is the error planted in this sentence.

The printed sentence highlights will leave early, and each option rewrites that phrase. Option (a) also turns early into earlier — earlier than I actually left — but the verb decides the item: option (b) keeps early and is still wrong.

Key facts

Had I known is the inverted form of If I had known, with the same meaning.
Third conditional: If + past perfect, would have + past participle, for a past that did not happen.
After a modal such as would, the verb takes its base form: would leave, would have left, never would left.

Study next

Inverted conditionals: Had I known, Were I you, Should you needThe conditional types and the result clause each one takesMixed conditionals: a past condition with a present result

Common traps

Choosing would leave early because it keeps the original early — would + base answers a past-simple if-clause, not a past perfect one.
Missing the condition because the word if is absent — Had I known is a full if-clause in inverted form.

The same inverted condition is set as a blank at 18 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.9: 'Had they submitted the proposal earlier, they ___ the funding', keyed would have received.

17 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.23 carries it into narration, keyed 'Had I known earlier, I would have made the necessary arrangements,' said the professor.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Sentence improvement — all 98 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.