Direct and Indirect Speech MCQ Quiz - Objective Question with Answer for Direct and Indirect Speech - Download Free PDF

The correct answer is '4' i.e. I requested my friend to help me in checking the accounts.

Key Points

• The given sentence is an example of a polite request, indicated by the use of the word “please.”
• When changing direct speech to indirect speech, “please” is omitted, and the verb is changed appropriately to reflect the request.
• The correct verb for expressing a polite request in indirect speech is “requested.”
• The indirect speech structure is: Subject + requested + object + to-infinitive.

Correct sentence: I requested my friend to help me in checking the accounts.

Additional Information

• When converting direct speech to indirect speech, the following changes are made:
  • Pronouns: The pronouns are adjusted according to the context of the sentence.
  • Verb: The verb is changed to match the reporting verb (e.g., “requested” for polite requests).
  • Quotation marks: Quotation marks are removed, and the sentence is restructured.
• Incorrect options:
  • Option 1: “Ordered” implies authority, which doesn’t align with the polite tone of the sentence.
  • Option 2: Retains “please,” which is not used in indirect speech.
  • Option 3: Sentence structure is incorrect and doesn’t convey the intended meaning.

The correct answer is '2' i.e. Mother reminded Ravi to return home before it got dark and warned him not to get late.

Key Points

• The sentence in direct speech contains a directive (command/request) and a warning.
• In indirect speech, the directive is conveyed using the verb "reminded," and the warning is conveyed with "warned."
• The tense in indirect speech changes appropriately: "before it gets dark" becomes "before it got dark."
• Option 2 is correct because it appropriately conveys both the reminder and the warning from the mother in indirect speech.

Correct sentence: Mother reminded Ravi to return home before it got dark and warned him not to get late.

Additional Information

• Direct to Indirect Speech Rules:
  • Reporting Verb: Use appropriate verbs like "said," "reminded," "warned," "requested," etc., depending on the context.
  • Tense Change: Present tense in direct speech changes to past tense in indirect speech.
  • Pronoun Change: Pronouns in direct speech are adjusted according to the perspective of the reporting speaker.
• Example: Direct: "You must finish your homework." Indirect: "She reminded him to finish his homework."

Key Points

• Indirect Speech: The sentence is converted from direct speech to indirect speech, modifying the tense and pronouns as necessary.
• Key Conversions:
  • "I am going to the store" becomes "he was going to the store"
    • The pronoun "I" changes to "he" to match the subject.
    • The verb "am" changes to "was" to reflect the change in tense from present to past.
    • The phrase "to the store" remains unchanged.
  • Reporting verb:
    • Direct: "he said"
    • Indirect: "he said that", introducing the reported clause.
• Punctuation and Format:
  • The indirect speech does not use quotation marks.
  • The tense and pronouns are adjusted to match the reporting context.

Additional Information

• Option 1: "He says that he will go to the store."
  • Incorrect tense: "says" suggests present reporting, whereas the original sentence uses past reporting ("he said").
  • Future tense "will go" does not match the original sentence, which uses present continuous ("am going").
• Option 2: "He said that he is going to the store."
  • Incorrect tense: "is going" suggests present continuous, but the indirect speech should shift to past continuous ("was going").
• Option 4: "He says that he went to the store."
  • Incorrect tense: "says" suggests present reporting, while the original sentence uses past reporting ("he said").
  • Past simple "went" does not match the original sentence, which uses present continuous ("am going").

Key Points

• Indirect Speech Conversion: When converting a direct question into indirect speech, the word order is changed to the affirmative form. In addition, the reporting verb (e.g., "said" or "asked") is changed, and the question mark is removed.
• Key Conversions:
  • Direct speech: "Where is the bus stand?" said the young man.
    Indirect speech: "The young man wanted to know where the bus stand was."
  • Tense Change: The present tense "is" becomes past tense "was" in the indirect speech, and the question is converted into a statement.

Additional Information

• Option 1: "The young man enquired where was the bus stand." is incorrect because in indirect speech, the word order of the question is changed to an affirmative order ("where the bus stand was").
• Option 2: "The young man asked for the bus stand." is incorrect because it changes the meaning of the sentence. The original sentence is asking about the location of the bus stand, not requesting it.
• Option 4: "The young man enquired about the bus stand." is incorrect because it omits the key detail of the location of the bus stand, which is crucial to the original question.

Key Points

• Indirect Speech: I said that I would be there before the clock struck twelve.
• Key Conversions:
  • "I would be there" becomes "I will be here"
    • The verb "would" is replaced with "will" to match the direct speech tense.
    • "There" is changed to "here" to align with the perspective of direct speech.
  • "Before the clock struck twelve" becomes "before the clock strikes twelve"
    • The verb "struck" is changed to "strikes" to reflect present tense in direct speech.
  • Reporting verb:
    • Indirect: "I said that"
    • Converted to: "I said," followed by the direct speech enclosed in quotation marks.
• Punctuation and Format:
  • Direct speech is enclosed in quotation marks.
  • Starts with a capital letter "I" and ends with a period ".".
  • Reporting clause precedes the quoted speech, separated by a comma.

Additional Information

• Option 1: "I will have been here before the clock strikes twelve."
  • Incorrect tense: "will have been" does not match the original meaning.
• Option 2: "I have been here before the clock strikes twelve."
  • Incorrect tense: "have been" implies a completed action, which changes the meaning.
• Option 3: "I should be here before the clock strikes twelve."
  • Incorrect modal verb: "should" alters the certainty expressed in the original sentence.

The correct answer is option 1)  i.e. She asked, "What is it that makes you stronger and braver than other men?"

Key Points

• The given sentence is an indirect speech.
• The basic rules for changing or converting indirect speech into direct speech:
  • Include the comma and inverted commas.
  • The past simple tense "Subject + V2 + Object" of indirect speech should be converted into the present simple tense "Subject + V1 + Object" in "direct speech". 
  • The pronoun 'him' changes according to the customer, here becomes 'you'.
• From the following rules, we get the correct sentence as She asked, "What is it that makes you stronger and braver than other men?"

Additional Information

The following table will enable us to know how tense changes into Indirect speech:

The correct answer is option 1 i.e. She told me that she prepared evening snacks and he prepared the tea.

Explanation

To change a sentence from Direct to Indirect speech, we need to make the following changes-

• We make changes in Tense of Reported Speech only if the Reporting Verb is in Past Tense
• If the sentence of the Reported speech is an Assertive sentence we replace 'commas' with the conjunction 'that'
• If personal pronouns are there in the Reported Speech, will be changed according to the Subject and Object of the Reporting Verb
• Reporting Verb 'said to' will be changed into told.

Note- But always do Remember when the Reported Speech (Direct) expresses two simultaneous actions in the Past Tense, then there will be no change in Tense of Indirect speech.

 Thus, the Reported speech of the given sentence expresses two simultaneous actions in the Past Tense; hence, the Tense of the Reported Speech (Indirect) will not change

One can opt Option 2 as an answer but do remember the exception given above-when the Reported Speech (Direct) expresses two simultaneous actions in the Past Tense, then in Indirect Speech, there will be no change in Tense

Correct sentence- She told me that she prepared evening snacks and he prepared the tea.

Here the correct answer is She asked me where I was going for the vacation.
Key Points

• Let's look at the steps for changing the sentence from direct to indirect speech:
• As the reporting verb is in the past tense and direct speech is in the present continuous tense, we will take the following steps:-
  • The reporting verb 'said' is changed to 'asked' because 'Reporting verbs such as said/ said to changes to enquired, asked, or demanded'.
  • The conjunction 'that' is not used because 'No conjunction is used, if a sentence in direct speech begins with a question (what/where/when) as the "question-word" itself acts as a joining clause'.
  • For Example:-
  • Direct: “Where do you live?”, asked the boy.
  • Indirect: The boy enquired where I lived.
  • The present continuous tense (are going) is changed to the past continuous tense (was going) in the direct speech.
  • The pronoun 'You' is changed to 'I' as the first person changes according to the subject.​

Additional Information
The following table will enable us to know how tense changes in indirect speech:-

The correct answer is: She said that she had to leave all the bad habits.

Key Points 

• The given sentence is in direct speech and we need to convert it to indirect speech.
• When we change a direct speech to an indirect speech, we must follow these rules:
  • The reporting verb "said" remains unchanged in the indirect speech.
  • The inverted commas ("...") are replaced with the conjunction 'that' to show the indirect speech part.
  • The comma (,) is removed in the indirect speech.
  • The first word of the indirect speech should be in capital letters.
  • 'Must' in direct speech changes to 'Had to' in indirect speech.
• Thus, option 3 is the correct answer.
   

Hence, indirect speech is - She said that she had to leave all the bad habits.

Important Points

• 'MUST changes into HAD TO' from direct speech to indirect speech
  • He said, “I must study for the exam”. - He said that he had to study the exam.
  • She said, “I must finish the work in time”.- She said that she had to finish the work in time.

The correct answer is He said to me, “When did you book the flight tickets?”

Key Points

• The given sentence is in Indirect Speech. As per the question we have to change it into Direct Speech. 
• The process of transformation is as follows:
  • 'Asked' will be changed into 'said to' because the given question is an example of an interrogative sentence with a question word. 
  • Commas and inverted commas will be added. 
  • 'had booked' will be changed into 'did book'.
  • 'I' will be changed into 'you' because we know that in 'direct to indirect' transformation second-person pronouns are changed according to the object of the reporting verb.
  • Thus, the correct answer is Option 1.
     

​Correct Sentence: He said to me, “When did you book the flight tickets?”

The correct sentence is He confirmed whether she was going to the party or not.

Key Points

• While changing the narration of an assertive sentence + question tag, we make the following changes:
  • 'Said to' is changed according to the tone. In this sentence the person is confirming, the reported verb is changed accordingly.
  • The first person (I/We) changes according to the subject, the second person (You) changes according to the object and the third person (He/She/It) remains unchanged.
  • Conjunction if/whether is used if the question is a close-ended question ( if the answer is "yes" or "no").
  • Question mark (?) is replaced with full-stop (.).
• Tense, place, and time change according to the rules for both assertive and interrogative sentences.
   

So, the final sentence is - He confirmed whether she was going to the party or not.

Additional Information

Tense, place, and time change according to the following rules:

The correct answer is option 3) i.e. 'Ramita said she wished she didn’t have to meet her step-mother.'

Key Points  

• The given sentence is in Direct Speech. As per the given directions, we have to change it into Indirect Speech.
• The given sentence is an optative sentence.
• The process of transformation is as follows:
  • The comma and inverted commas will be removed.
  • In the Indirect speech 'said' will not be changed because the reporting verb has no object.
  • The indirect speech will begin like 'Ramita said.'
• The Tense used in the sentence after wish/ if only, etc. does not change in indirect speech.
  • ​Example:- 
    • She said to him, “Wish you were here.”
    • She wished that he was there.
• Hence, 'didn’t have to' will be as it is in the indirect speech.
• Here the pronoun 'I' will be changed into 'she' twice.
• The pronoun 'my' will be changed into 'her' twice.
• The present form of the verb 'wish' will be changed into the past form 'wished.'
• The remaining part will not change.
• Finally, the indirect speech is 'Ramita said she wished she didn’t have to meet her step-mother.'
• ​So, the correct answer is option 3.

Correct Sentence: Ramita said she wished she didn’t have to meet her step-mother.

Confusion Points

• The modal verb "didn't have to" in the direct speech remains the same in the indirect speech because it refers to a present or future action that has not yet occurred at the time of reporting.
• Therefore, "didn't have to" does not change to "had not."

The correct answer is 'Ajay says that there is going to be a snowfall.'

Key Points

• The given sentence is in Direct Speech. As per the question we have to change it into Indirect Speech. 
• In the given sentence, the reporting verb is in the present tense.
• So, the tense of the reported speech will remain the same.
• We change the tense and pronouns of reported speech only when reporting verb is in the past tense.
• While changing the given Direct narration into Indirect narration, comma and inverted commas will be removed and connector 'that' will be added and the reported speech will be written after 'that'.

Correct Sentence: Ajay says that there is going to be a snowfall.

The correct answer is "The grandfather blessed the baby with long life and all good things of life."Key Points

• The given sentence is an Optative sentence.
• In an optative sentence Reporting verb is changed into ‘wish’, ‘pray’ , 'bless'.
• In this case, the grandfather is blessing the baby with long life and all the good things of life. So, 'Blessed' becomes the apt main verb.
• Notice how the whole sentence a blessing/hope that the grandfather is expressing and not something that he is actually saying to the baby.
• This means that the reported speech can just be that the grandfather blessed the baby with long life and all good things thereof.

• From the above-mentioned rules, it is clear that the correct sentence is "The grandfather blessed the baby with long life and all good things of life"

Hence, the correct answer is "Option 1".

The correct answer is 'Mother told me that she was worried about my safety.'

Key Points

• The given sentence is in Direct Speech. As per the question, we have to change it into Indirect Speech. 
• The process of transformation is as follows:
  • In the given sentence the reporting verb has an object. Hence, 'said to' will be changed into 'told'. 
  • Comma and inverted commas will be removed. 
  • The conjunction 'that' will be added.
  • 'I' will be changed into 'she' because the first person pronouns are changed according to the subject of the reporting verb.
  • 'am' will be changed into 'was'.
  • 'your' will be changed into 'my' because the second-person pronouns are changed according to the object of the reporting verb.
  • Thus, the correct answer is Option 2.
     

Correct Sentence: Mother told me that she was worried about my safety.