Discussion
In the sentence below, a part is printed in bold. Choose the alternative that best replaces it. If no improvement is needed, choose ‘No correction required’.
He said, “I am leaving for Chennai tomorrow.”
Answer: C
Correct answer: No correction required
The sentence is correct as it stands. This is direct speech - the speaker’s words are quoted exactly, within quotation marks - so no tense change is required. The backshift of tenses applies only to indirect or reported speech. Converted, the sentence would read: He said that he was leaving for Chennai the next day. Notice that two things change together - the tense moves back one step, and the adverb of time shifts as well. The full set of adverb changes is worth knowing: tomorrow becomes the next day, yesterday becomes the previous day, today becomes that day, now becomes then, here becomes there, this becomes that, and ago becomes before. Since the quotation marks are present, none of that applies, and altering the tense inside them would misquote the speaker.
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