GyaanVibe is a focused educational platform dedicated to helping SSC CGL aspirants crack Tier 1 & Tier 2 exam with a strategic, day-wise, and well-structured preparation approach.
SSC CGL Preparation – Day 9
English: Sentence Improvement
🧠 What is Sentence Improvement?
Sentence Improvement questions test your grammar, usage, sentence structure, and clarity of expression. You are given a sentence with a part underlined, and you must choose the best possible version from the options to improve it.
📌 Why It’s Important for SSC CGL:
- Appears frequently in Tier 1 and Tier 2 exams.
- Tests core grammar areas: tenses, subject-verb agreement, modifiers, articles, prepositions, voice, narration, parallelism, redundancy, etc.
- Helps improve sentence clarity and conciseness.
🧩 Types of Sentence Improvement Questions:
- Grammatical Errors – Wrong tenses, subject-verb mismatches, article/preposition usage.
- Word Choice Errors – Wrong verb/adjective/adverb.
- Redundancy – Repeating the same meaning.
- Incorrect Idioms/Phrases – Usage of wrong expressions.
- Awkward or Clumsy Structure – Not concise or natural in construction.
🔍 Common Grammar Areas Tested:
| Topic | Examples |
|---|---|
| Subject-Verb Agreement | She go to school → She goes to school |
| Tenses | I am gone to market → I have gone to the market |
| Modifiers | Running fast, the gate was missed. → Running fast, he missed the gate. |
| Articles | He is an honest man. |
| Prepositions | She is good in math → She is good at math |
| Parallelism | He likes reading, writing, and to jog → He likes reading, writing, and jogging |
| Pronouns | Everyone should bring their books → Everyone should bring his or her book |
| Voice/Reported Speech | He said, “I am tired” → He said that he was tired |
✍️ Strategy to Solve Sentence Improvement Questions:
- Read the sentence carefully.
- Understand the intended meaning.
- Identify the error, if any, in the underlined part.
- Eliminate grammatically incorrect or awkward options.
- Choose the most concise, grammatically correct option.
⚠️ Common Traps to Avoid:
- Don’t assume that the original sentence is correct.
- Watch out for tricky modifiers and parallelism issues.
- Don’t over-correct – sometimes the given sentence is already correct (option D: No Improvement).
- Ensure verb forms match the subject and context.
🎯 Practice Examples:
Example 1:
She is more smarter than her sister.
A) smarter
B) much smarter
C) very smart
D) No improvement
✅ Answer: A) smarter
📚 Explanation: “More smarter” is incorrect – “smarter” is already a comparative adjective.
Example 2:
He did not knew the answer.
A) did not know
B) does not knew
C) did not knows
D) No improvement
✅ Answer: A) did not know
📚 Explanation: After “did”, the base form of the verb is used – “know”.
📘 Tips for Mastery:
- Practice 20–30 questions daily.
- Focus on one grammar concept per day (e.g., modifiers, voice, etc.).
- Read error-free material (editorials, grammar books).
- Maintain an error log to review frequent mistakes.
