SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 16 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: He was accused for stealing the documents.

(a)accused of stealing
(b)accused to steal
(c)accused with stealing
(d)charged for steal

Answer

Why

Correct — A.
The verb accuse takes of: you accuse someone of a wrongdoing.

A verb after a preposition takes the gerund, so steal becomes stealing: "He was accused of stealing the documents."

Its near-synonym charge takes with instead (charged with stealing). The key takes option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
accused to steal — accused to steal uses a to-infinitive, but accuse does not take one. It takes of + gerund.
(c)
accused with stealing — accused with stealing borrows the preposition of charge. Charged with is correct, but accuse takes of.
(d)
charged for steal — charged for steal has two faults: charge takes with for a crime, and after a preposition the verb must be the gerund stealing.

Concept

Some verbs fix their preposition, and it stays when the verb goes passive: accuse someone of → be accused of; charge someone with → be charged with.

After a preposition, a following verb takes the -ing form: accused of stealing, charged with stealing, prevented from going.

Charge also takes for, in a different sense: to charge someone for something is to ask them to pay for it (charged for the repairs).

Key facts

accuse + person + of + wrongdoing: accused of theft.
charge + person + with + crime: charged with theft.
Preposition + verb → gerund: of stealing, from going.

Study next

Verb + preposition pairs in the passive: accused of, charged with, blamed forGerunds after prepositions: prevent from, insist on, succeed insuspect someone of vs. suspicious of

Common traps

Mixing accuse with charge's preposition and choosing "accused with"
Keeping the bare verb after a preposition, as in "for steal"

The same format fixes a verb's preposition at 22 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.20 (died by a heart attack → died of) and 14 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.21 (prevent your brother to do → from doing).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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