SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 22 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.

A sentence is provided in direct speech. From the four given options, choose the one that most accurately conveys the sentence in its corresponding indirect speech. He said, “Do it right now.”

(a)He said do it immediately.
(b)He told to do it now.
(c)He told me to do it at once.
(d)He told me do it right now.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. 'Do it right now' is an imperative, a command. A reported command takes a verb such as told, then the listener, then a to-infinitive: told me to do it.

The direct sentence names no listener, and told in this pattern needs one, so the key supplies me.

Right now is reported as at once, which keeps the urgency → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
He said do it immediately. — Said do it keeps the command in its direct form, just without quotation marks. A reported command turns do into a to-infinitive and names the listener: told me to do it.
(b)
He told to do it now. — Told in a reported command needs the person told — told me, told him. 'He told to do it' leaves that slot empty, which is ungrammatical.
(d)
He told me do it right now. — Has the listener but drops to: 'told me do it' is ungrammatical. Tell + listener takes a to-infinitive, so it must be told me to do it.

Concept

Reporting a command changes its shape, not just its tense.
The reporting verb becomes told, ordered, asked or requested, to fit the tone.
The listener follows the verb.
The command becomes a to-infinitive: 'Do it' becomes told me to do it.

A negative command takes not to: 'Don't shout' becomes told me not to shout.

The speaker's time words shift too. Now usually becomes then, and an urgent right now can be reported as at once or immediately.

Right now has no single fixed reported form. At once keeps the urgency, and immediately — the word in option (a) — would do the same job. Option (a) fails on its structure, not on its time word.

Key facts

A reported command: told/ordered/asked + listener + to-infinitive, as in He told me to do it.
In a reported command, tell needs the listener (told me), while say takes the listener only through to (said to me).
A negative command is reported with not to: He told me not to do it.
Now in direct speech usually becomes then in reported speech.

Study next

Reporting requests and advice: requested, advised, begged + to-infinitiveReporting negative commands with not toSay versus tell in reported speech: said to me, told me

Common traps

Writing told to do it with no listener — in a reported command, tell needs the person told.
Dropping to after told me — the command becomes a to-infinitive, not a bare verb.

The same told + listener + to-infinitive answer is keyed at 14 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.22, where She said to me, 'Open the window' becomes 'She told me to open the window'.

There the direct sentence names the listener (said to me); here the key has to supply me.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Narration — all 23 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.