SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 22 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 16 of 98

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: Neither the manager nor the employees (1)/ has submitted (2)/ their performance logs (3)/ for the current quarter. (4)/

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

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The subjects are joined by neither … nor, so the verb agrees with the subject nearer to it.

Nearer subject: the employees (plural)
Verb needed: have submitted
Verb printed: has submitted (singular)

Part (2) carries the error → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
(1) — Part (1) is correct. Neither is paired with nor, and the two subjects are parallel noun phrases. The fault lies in the verb that follows them.
(c)
(3) — Their in part (3) is correct. It refers back to the employees, the plural subject that also decides the verb, so a plural pronoun fits.
(d)
(4) — For the current quarter is a correct time phrase with no bearing on agreement. The fault is the verb in part (2).

Concept

With either … or and neither … nor, the verb agrees with the subject closest to it. This is often called the principle of proximity.

Neither the manager nor the employees have submitted. Neither the employees nor the manager has submitted. The subjects are the same, and their order alone changes the verb.

So the repair is have submitted, with the subjects left as they are.

Joined by and, the same two subjects take a plural verb in either order: the manager and the employees have submitted.

Key facts

With neither … nor and either … or, the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
Swap the order and the verb flips: neither the employees nor the manager has submitted.
Subjects joined by and take a plural verb.

Study next

Agreement after as well as, along with and together with, where the first subject decides the verbAgreement with each, every, either and neither used on their own

Common traps

Making the verb agree with the manager because it is the first subject read.
Flagging their in part (3) after reading the subject as singular.

The same two subjects return at 16 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.21, 'Neither the manager nor the employees was available', where the keyed replacement is were available.

12 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.7 tests the pairing itself: 'Neither the principal investigator ___ the co-authors', keyed nor.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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