SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 15 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: I am liking this movie a lot.

(a)have liked
(b)like
(c)liked
(d)am enjoy this movie

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The trigger is liking. Like is a state verb: it names an attitude, not an action in progress, so standard grammar keeps it out of the continuous form.

A present state takes the present simple: I like this movie a lot → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
have liked — have liked is the present perfect, which looks back over a span up to now, as in I have liked his films since school. The sentence states a present opinion with no span.
(c)
liked — liked is the past simple. It moves the opinion into the past, while am in the original places it in the present.
(d)
am enjoy this movie — am enjoy puts be before a bare verb, which is not an English verb form. Am enjoying would be grammatical, since enjoy readily takes the continuous, but (d) does not print it.

Concept

State verbs describe states rather than actions: feelings and opinions (like, love, hate, prefer, want), knowledge and belief (know, believe), possession (own, belong).

They normally take simple forms even when the state holds right now: I know the answer, not I am knowing it.

Some verbs have both uses: I think so is an opinion, while I am thinking about it is a mental activity.

The sheet sets am liking this movie in bold italics as the highlighted part, yet options (a) to (c) are bare verbs; read literally, (b) would leave I like a lot. The key works as the verb swap am liking → like, with this movie kept.

Casual speech does produce forms like I'm loving it. Standard grammar, and this key, keep like in the simple form.

Key facts

Like, love, hate, prefer and want name states and normally take simple tenses.
Know, believe, own and belong also resist the continuous: I know him, not I am knowing him.
Enjoy readily takes the continuous: I am enjoying the film.

Study next

Verbs with a state sense and an action sense: think, have, see, tastePresent simple against present continuous for feelings and opinionsPresent perfect markers: since, for, so far, already

Common traps

Choosing have liked or liked because each is grammatical alone, without checking that the time stays present
Assuming any verb can follow am + -ing, when state verbs are the exception

Here the state verb like is forced into the present continuous, and the options offer other forms of the same verb plus the malformed am enjoy.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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