English Grammar - Narration

English Grammar
English Grammar - Narration

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."


Options:

  1. She said she had seen him the previous night.
  2. She said she has seen him last night.
  3. She said she was seeing him last night.
  4. She said she had saw him the previous night.

Right Answer: She said she had seen him the previous night.

Converting direct speech to indirect requires back-shifting the tense and adjusting time expressions. The simple past 'saw' moves one step back to the past perfect 'had seen'. The time phrase 'last night' must change to 'the previous night', because the reporting is happening at a later moment. The pronoun 'I' becomes 'she'. Option one applies all three changes correctly. Option two fails to back-shift and keeps 'last night'. Option three changes the meaning to a continuous action. Option four uses the incorrect form 'had saw' instead of the past participle 'seen'. Hence option one is correct.

This question is part of English Grammar - Narration, which has 48 practice questions with answers.

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