Direct-Indirect Speech Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The correct version is He ordered his servant to hurry up and not to waste time.

An imperative sentence is reported with a reporting verb that suits its tone, here 'ordered', since a master is giving commands, followed by the to-infinitive: 'to hurry up'. A negative command becomes 'not to' plus the verb: 'not to waste time'.

Option A changes the second command into a past-tense statement ('did not waste time'). Option C makes 'hurried up' a transitive verb with the servant as its object, which is ungrammatical. Option D uses 'advised', which wrongly softens the command, and rephrases it.

Answer: B

The reported form is 'Shivam asked whether she was coming to the prom that night'. A direct yes/no question becomes an indirect question introduced by 'if' or 'whether'. With a reporting verb in the past, the present continuous 'are you coming' moves back to 'was coming', and 'tonight' becomes 'that night'. Option A changes to 'would come', option D keeps 'is coming' without a tense shift, and option C changes the reporting verb to 'was sceptical', which changes the meaning.

Answer: D

The indirect speech is 'My uncle asked me whether I had read any play by Edward Bond.'

A question is reported with 'asked' and 'whether' or 'if', the word order becomes that of a statement, the pronoun changes from 'you' to 'I' and the present perfect becomes the past perfect.

Options A, B and C keep the question order, use 'told' or form 'had been read', which are all wrong.

A yes or no question in direct speech is reported with 'asked' and 'whether' or 'if'. The reported clause takes the order of a statement, so 'have you read' becomes 'I had read'. The pronouns also change, 'you' to 'I', and the present perfect becomes the past perfect.

Answer: A

The reported speech is 'Bindu said that she was very tired then.'

In reported speech after 'said' (past) the present 'am' changes to 'was', 'I' becomes 'she' and 'now' becomes 'then'.

Options B and D keep 'is', and C and D use the faulty 'was been' and 'is been'.

Several changes are needed for reported speech: the tense moves back (am becomes was), the pronoun moves from 'I' to 'she', and the time word 'now' becomes 'then'. Only option A makes all three changes correctly without adding extra words.

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.

Answer: A

The best reported form is The man emphatically refused to confess guilt.

In indirect speech, words such as 'Yes' and 'No' are not reported literally; their force is carried by the reporting verb or an adverb. Here 'No' adds emphasis to the refusal, so it becomes 'emphatically refused', and the rest of the sentence keeps its meaning.

'The man refused to confess his guilt' drops the emphasis carried by 'No'. 'The man told that he did not confess guilt' is ungrammatical ('told' needs an object) and changes refusal into a plain denial. 'Stubborn enough to confess guilt' reverses the meaning, since he refused.

Answer: B

The reported speech is She said that she had met him the previous day.

When the reporting verb is in the past (said), the tense shifts back one step: the simple past met becomes the past perfect had met. The pronoun I becomes she, and the time word yesterday becomes the previous day (or the day before).

She said she met him yesterday keeps both the tense and the time word unchanged. She said she has met him yesterday uses the present perfect, which cannot go with yesterday. She said that she met him the previous day changes the time word but not the tense, so it is only half converted.

Answer: C

The indirect speech is The man said that the lion had died in the night.

When the reporting verb is in the past tense (said), the tense of the reported words moves one step back. A simple past (died) becomes the past perfect (had died), and the reported clause is introduced with that.

'The lion died in the night' keeps the simple past and so does not apply the change of tense. 'Was dead' and 'had been dead' change the verb from die (an event) to be dead (a state), which alters the meaning.

Answer: C

The indirect speech is Samir told us that we had done that work well.

Converting to indirect speech with a past reporting verb follows set rules: said to us becomes told us, the clause is joined with that, the pronoun you becomes we because Samir was speaking to us, the present perfect have done moves back to the past perfect had done, and this becomes that.

The other options change who did the work or drop the reporting structure: 'Samir has done this work well' makes Samir the doer, and the remaining two keep direct word order without the tense and pronoun changes.

Answer: C

The correct indirect speech is She wished me a Merry Christmas.

When the direct speech is a greeting or exclamation such as 'Merry Christmas!', 'Good morning!' or 'Happy birthday!', it is reported with a suitable reporting verb like wish or greet, not by repeating the words after 'said that'.

'She told me Merry Christmas' keeps the direct words without converting them. 'She said that Christmas was Merry' turns a greeting into a statement of fact, and 'She called me a Merry Christmas' makes no sense.