SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 21 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 21 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: The teacher advised him to not waste time.

(a)that he should not waste time
(b)not to waste time
(c)to waste not time
(d)to avoid wasting time

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Every option replaces to not waste time, so the fault is the position of not in a negative infinitive.

The conventional order puts not before to: advise someone not to do something. 'The teacher advised him not to waste time.'

Option (b) moves not and changes nothing else, so the sentence keeps its own words and meaning → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
that he should not waste time — that he should not waste time is wordier rather than wrong: 'advised him that he should not waste time' names the boy twice, him and he, where 'advised him not to' needs one.
(c)
to waste not time — to waste not time puts not after the main verb, an old order kept in sayings such as Waste not, want not. In a modern sentence it also reads as if not belongs to time.
(d)
to avoid wasting time — to avoid wasting time is grammatical and close in meaning, but it rewrites the phrase instead of repairing it. The fault was where not stood, and (b) fixes exactly that.

Concept

A negative infinitive in formal English puts not (or never) directly before to: not to waste, never to return.

After verbs of advice and request, such as advise, ask, tell and request, the pattern is verb + object + not to + base verb: 'The teacher advised him not to waste time.'

To not + verb, a split infinitive, is common in modern English. SSC's own key let 'to not attend' stand at 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.7 and marked 'the hundred reasons' as the error instead.

Here the question offers not to waste, and between the split and the unsplit infinitive the key takes the conventional order.

Key facts

Negative infinitive: not + to + base verb (not to waste, not to go).
Advise, ask, tell and request take object + to-infinitive: advised him to rest, advised him not to worry.
Waste not, want not is a proverb that keeps an older word order.

Study next

Verbs followed by object + to-infinitive: advise, ask, tell, warn, requestVerbs followed by from + -ing: prevent, stop, prohibitSplit infinitives in formal and informal English

Common traps

Choosing (d) because it sounds polished. It is grammatical, but it rewrites the phrase instead of moving not.
Choosing (a) because a that-clause looks formal. It doubles the pronoun (him ... he) and is wordier than the infinitive.

The pattern sits in an error-free segment at 26 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.3: 'The teacher asked him not to keep disturbing the class', where the key marks 'no affect' instead.

For contrast, 14 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.21 keys 'prevent your brother from doing' over 'not to do': prevent takes from + -ing.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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