Discussion
Suresh said, “I did it yesterday.”
Which one of the following options is the correct form of this sentence in indirect speech?
Answer: D
The correct indirect form is Suresh said that he had done it the day before.
Three changes are needed when a past-tense reporting verb (said) introduces reported speech. The pronoun shifts to the reporter's point of view, so I becomes he. The tense moves one step back, so the simple past did becomes the past perfect had done. Time words move away from the moment of speaking, so yesterday becomes the day before (or the previous day).
'Suresh said that I did it yesterday' keeps the first person and the original time word, so it now says the reporter did it. The two options with says change the reporting verb to the present tense, which the original sentence does not have, and 'Suresh says I did it yesterday' also keeps the wrong pronoun.
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