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SSC CGL (Combined Graduate Level) English Comprehension Flashcards
50 question-and-answer cards covering English Comprehension as it is examined in SSC CGL (Combined Graduate Level). 24 of them are printed below, taken from across the deck — no signup, no paywall on the preview.
24 sample cards from the English Comprehension deck
Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.
What is the difference between an abstract noun and a concrete noun?
A concrete noun names something perceivable by the senses (e.g., table, dog); an abstract noun names an idea, quality, or state (e.g., honesty, freedom).
List the three main tenses and their basic time references.
Present (action now/habitual), Past (action completed before now), and Future (action yet to happen). Each has simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous forms.
What is the structure of the Present Perfect tense, and when is it used?
Structure: has/have + past participle (e.g., 'She has eaten'). It is used for actions completed at an unspecified time or those with present relevance.
State the basic rule of Subject-Verb Agreement.
A singular subject takes a singular verb and a plural subject takes a plural verb (e.g., 'He plays' vs. 'They play').
In subject-verb agreement, what verb form do two singular subjects joined by 'and' take, and what about subjects joined by 'or/nor'?
Two singular subjects joined by 'and' usually take a plural verb. With 'or/nor', the verb agrees with the nearer subject (e.g., 'Neither he nor they are coming').
What verb (singular or plural) do words like 'each', 'every', 'everyone', and 'neither' take?
They take a singular verb (e.g., 'Each of the boys is present').
What are the three articles in English, and which are indefinite vs. definite?
'A' and 'An' are indefinite articles; 'The' is the definite article.
When is the article 'an' used instead of 'a'?
'An' is used before a word beginning with a vowel sound (e.g., an hour, an MLA), while 'a' is used before a consonant sound (e.g., a university, a one-rupee coin).
What is the function of a conjunction? Name the two main types.
A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses. The two main types are coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or) and subordinating conjunctions (because, although, if).
Which preposition is used to indicate a point of time (e.g., 5 o'clock), a day, and a month/year respectively?
'At' for a point of time (at 5 o'clock), 'on' for days/dates (on Monday), and 'in' for months/years/long periods (in June, in 2024).
What is 'Error Spotting' in SSC CGL English?
A question type where a sentence is divided into parts and the candidate must identify which part contains a grammatical error (or mark 'no error' if correct).
Spot the error: 'One of my friend / is going / to London / tomorrow.' What is the correction?
Error is in 'One of my friend'; it should be 'One of my friends' (the noun after 'one of' must be plural).
Spot the error: 'He is senior / than me / by five years.' What is the correction?
Error is 'senior than me'; it should be 'senior to me' (words like senior, junior, superior, prior take 'to', not 'than').
What is Narration (Direct and Indirect speech)?
Narration is reporting someone's words. Direct speech quotes the exact words within inverted commas; Indirect (reported) speech conveys the meaning without exact quotation and requires changes in tense, pronouns, and time expressions.
In Direct-to-Indirect speech, how do 'now', 'today', and 'tomorrow' change?
'Now' becomes 'then', 'today' becomes 'that day', and 'tomorrow' becomes 'the next day'.
When converting Direct to Indirect speech, what happens to the tense of the reported clause if the reporting verb is in the past?
The reported clause tense usually shifts back: present becomes past, past becomes past perfect, will becomes would, can becomes could, etc. (back-shifting of tenses).
What is the basic rule for converting Active voice to Passive voice?
The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence, the verb changes to 'be + past participle', and the original subject becomes the agent (often with 'by').
Convert to passive voice: 'The teacher praised the student.'
'The student was praised by the teacher.'
In passive voice, how is a question like 'Who wrote this letter?' transformed?
'By whom was this letter written?'
What is 'Sentence Improvement' in competitive English exams?
A question type where a part of a sentence (often underlined/bracketed) may contain an error, and the candidate must choose the option that best improves or correctly replaces that part (or 'no improvement').
Improve the sentence: 'He prefers tea than coffee.'
'He prefers tea to coffee.' ('Prefer' takes 'to', not 'than').
What are 'Para Jumbles' or Sentence Rearrangement questions?
Questions where several jumbled sentences (or sentence parts) must be reordered to form a coherent, logically sequenced paragraph.
What is a key strategy for solving Sentence Rearrangement / Para Jumbles?
Identify the opening sentence (introduces the topic, no pronoun reference), find logical/chronological links, and use connectors, pronouns, and transition words to determine the correct sequence.
What is the difference between the comparative and superlative degrees of an adjective?
The comparative degree compares two things (e.g., 'taller', 'more beautiful'), while the superlative degree compares three or more, indicating the highest degree (e.g., 'tallest', 'most beautiful').
What this deck covers
The English Comprehension deck follows the SSC CGL (Combined Graduate Level) English Comprehension syllabus — 4 chapters and 18 topics — so questions land on material that is genuinely examinable rather than trivia around it. That works out to roughly 12.5 cards per chapter.
Answers are written to be recallable, not just readable — averaging about 136 characters, which is long enough to carry the reasoning and short enough to say out loud.
A deck like this earns its keep on the second and third pass. Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then use the cards to find the specific facts that have not stuck.
English Comprehension flashcards FAQ
How many English Comprehension flashcards are in this SSC CGL (Combined Graduate Level) deck?
50 cards. This page previews 24 of them, sampled evenly across the deck so you can judge the difficulty before installing anything.
Are these SSC CGL (Combined Graduate Level) flashcards free?
Yes. The preview here is free to read with no signup, and the full 50-card deck is free inside the Examius app.
What do the English Comprehension cards cover?
They follow the SSC CGL (Combined Graduate Level) English Comprehension syllabus — 4 chapters and 18 topics — so the questions track what is actually examinable.
How should I use these flashcards?
Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then drill the deck. Examius schedules each card with spaced repetition, so cards you keep missing come back sooner and ones you know drift further apart.