Question

A sentence is provided in direct speech. From the four given options, choose the one that most accurately conveys the sentence in its corresponding indirect speech. She said, "I saw him last night."

• A. She said she had seen him the previous night.
• B. She said she has seen him last night.
• C. She said she was seeing him last night.
• D. She said she had saw him the previous night.

Answer 1

Answer:

A. She said she had seen him the previous night.

This is a convergent 🎯 query involving the rules of reported speech in English grammar. I'll help you break down the steps to transform direct speech into indirect speech.

The correct choice is: She said she had seen him the previous night.

Here is the step-by-step breakdown of why this is correct:

• Reporting Verb: Since "said" is in the past tense, we must change the tense of the verbs inside the quotation marks (this is called backshifting). 🕒

• Verb Tense Change: The original sentence uses "saw" (Simple Past). In indirect speech, the Simple Past typically changes to the Past Perfect (had + past participle). Therefore, "saw" becomes "had seen". 🔄

• Time Expression: Words indicating specific times must be updated to reflect the shift in perspective. "Last night" becomes "the previous night" or "the night before". 🗓️

• Subject Pronoun: The "I" in the original quote refers to the speaker ("She"), so it changes to "she" in the indirect version. 👤