Discussion
Choose the most appropriate indirect speech of the given sentence from the options that follow:
The man says, "coffee is ready."
Answer: A
The correct indirect speech is The man says that coffee is ready.
The reporting verb 'says' is in the present tense. When the reporting verb is present (or future), the tense of the reported words does not change, so 'is ready' stays 'is ready'. Only the quotation marks are dropped and 'that' is added.
'The man said...' changes the reporting verb itself, which indirect speech never does. 'The man says that coffee was ready' shifts the tense back although nothing requires it. 'The man said that coffee was ready' is the correct form only if the direct speech had begun 'The man said'.
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