In the following section the sentences have been given in Direct or Indirect speech. From the given alternatives, choose the most appropriate sentence that best suits the given sentence in Indirect or Direct speech.
Change the speech of the given sentence:
She said to him, "Why don't you go today?"
Answer: A
Correct answer: She asked him why he did not go that day.
Said to becomes asked, the question order is straightened out, the auxiliary do moves back to did, and today becomes that day. Reporting it as asked him not to go turns a question into an instruction.
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Change the speech of the given sentence:
"Are you alone, my son?" asked a soft voice close behind me.
Answer: D
Correct answer: A soft voice behind me asked if I was alone.
A yes-or-no question takes asked… if; you becomes I and are becomes was. The vocative my son is dropped, since the report names the person addressed by the pronoun instead.
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Pinki said to Gaurav, "Will you help me in my work just now ?"
Answer: A
Correct answer: Pinki asked Gaurav whether he would help her in her work just then.
Four changes: said to becomes asked; the yes-or-no question takes whether; will becomes would; and the pronouns cross over, you to he and me/my to her. Just now becomes just then.
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Seeta said to me, " Can you give me your pen ?"
Answer: C
Correct answer: Seeta asked me if I could give her my pen
Can becomes could, and the pronouns cross: you becomes I, me becomes her, and your becomes my. Getting one of the three pronouns wrong changes who owns the pen.
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The father warned his son that he should be beware of him
Answer: A
Correct answer: The father warned his son, “Beware of him!”
Working backwards from indirect to direct: warned… that he should beware reports an imperative, so the original was the command Beware of him!. The other three options say something similar but are not what the reported form yields - a warning to watch that chap or be careful would have been reported with different words.
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Manna asked Rohan, "Have you sat in a trolley bus before ?"
Answer: A
Correct answer: Manna asked Rohan whether he had sat in a trolley bus earlier.
A yes-or-no question takes whether or if, and the question order is straightened out, so no inversion survives. The present perfect have you sat moves back to had sat, and before becomes earlier.
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Farhan asked Geeta, "Could you lend me a hundred rupees until tomorrow ?"
Answer: B
Correct answer: Farhan asked Geeta whether she could lend him a hundred rupees until the next day
Could is already a past form and does not change; the pronouns do - you becomes she and me becomes him. Tomorrow becomes the next day, which is the change the two near-identical options are testing.
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"What about going for swim," he said, "It's quite fine now."
Answer: A
Correct answer: He suggested going for a swim as it was quite fine
What about…? is a suggestion in the form of a question, so it is reported with suggested + gerund, not with asked. The second sentence is then joined as a reason, with it's moving back to it was and now dropping out.
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"You can't bathe in this sea," he said to me, "it's very rough."
Answer: C
Correct answer: He said that I couldn't bathe in that sea as it was very rough
You becomes I, can't becomes couldn't, this sea becomes that sea, and it's becomes it was. The two sentences of direct speech are joined with as, which makes the second the reason for the first.
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Vissu said, "We passed by a beautiful lake when we went on a trip to Goa."
Answer: C
Correct answer: Vissu said that they had passed by a beautiful lake when they had gone on a trip to Goa
Both verbs are past simple in the direct speech, so both move back to the past perfect. Shifting only the first leaves the two halves of the sentence in different tenses.
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