SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 3 · 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: He returned back to his hometown after many years.

(a)returned again
(b)returned
(c)came back
(d)has returned back

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Return already means to come or go back, so returned back says back twice.

Delete the extra word and the sentence is complete: He returned to his hometown after many years.

That single deletion fixes the fault and keeps the writer's verb and tense → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
returned again — returned again trades one extra word for another. Again means a second time, so the sentence would claim an earlier return it never mentions.
(c)
came back — came back is correct English, but it replaces the writer's verb when only the extra back was at fault. Returned fixes that with one deletion.
(d)
has returned back — has returned back keeps the redundant back, and it also swaps the simple past for the present perfect, which nothing in the sentence asks for.

Concept

A redundancy repeats a meaning that a word already carries. Return means 'come or go back', so back adds nothing.

The same fault appears in revert back and repeat again: in each, the verb already holds the idea the extra word repeats. Fix it by deleting the extra word, not by rebuilding the sentence.

Option (c) is not wrong English: He came back to his hometown after many years is a correct sentence. The instruction asks for the most suitable replacement, and removing the one redundant word beats changing the verb.

Key facts

Return means to come or go back, so return back is redundant.
Revert back and repeat again are redundant in the same way.
Again means a second time: returned again implies an earlier return.

Study next

Redundant pairs such as revert back, repeat again and reply backSuperfluous prepositions after transitive verbs: discuss about, comprise of

Common traps

Choosing came back because it is correct English, when the task is the most suitable repair
Choosing returned again because it sounds emphatic

A similar one-word repair is keyed at 14 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.20, where discussing about the issue loses its about.

English Q.10 of this paper rests on the same idea: comprises of is fixed by dropping of.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.