SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 16 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 10 of 75

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.

Find the part of the sentence that contains an error: Little did the committee knew (1)/ about the hidden liabilities (2)/ when it approved the merger (3)/ late last quarter. (4)/

(a)(1)
(b)(2)
(c)(3)
(d)(4)

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The trigger is Little did. Little is a negative adverb here, and moved to the front of the clause it inverts subject and auxiliary: did the committee, the order of a question.

The auxiliary did already carries the past tense, so the main verb stays in its base form: Little did the committee know. Knew marks the past a second time → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
(2) — about the hidden liabilities completes the verb naturally: to know about something. Nothing in the phrase clashes with the rest of the sentence.
(c)
(3) — when it approved the merger is a simple past clause, and it rightly refers to the committee acting as one body. The tense matches the past time of the sentence.
(d)
(4) — late last quarter is a time phrase fixing when the approval happened. It fits the past tense of approved and needs no change.

Concept

When a negative word such as little, never, seldom, rarely or hardly opens a clause, English inverts subject and auxiliary, the word order of a question.

With no other auxiliary to move, do, does or did is brought in to carry the tense, and the main verb falls back to its base form: Little did he know. Seldom does she call.

A perfect tense already has its auxiliary, so that one moves instead: Never have I seen such rain.

Little can also sit inside the clause with no inversion at all: The committee knew little about the hidden liabilities. Inversion happens only when little is moved to the front.

Key facts

After a fronted negative adverb the auxiliary comes before the subject: Little did the committee know.
Do, does or did carries the tense, so the main verb stays in the base form: did know, not did knew.
Without fronting there is no inversion: The committee knew little about the liabilities.

Study next

Inversion after never, seldom and rarely, as in Seldom does he callNo sooner … than and hardly … when with an inverted auxiliaryThe base form after do-support in questions and negatives: Did he know? He did not know.

Common traps

Stopping at did the committee, which is correctly inverted, and missing that the past tense is marked twice
Blaming segment (3) because it calls the committee it, when a committee acting as one body takes a singular pronoun

The same pattern is keyed at 19 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.23, where the direct speech reads Little did I realize what consequences my words would have.

At 19 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.12, No sooner did Mr. Piyahri Mishra finish his chemistry lecture shows the base form after did, though that item tests than.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Error spotting — all 121 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.