Question

Change the following statement into indirect speech.
My father said to me, “What have you done with all the money I gave you?”
A) My father told me what I had done with all the money I gave you
B) My father asked me what I had done with all the money I gave you
C) My father asked me what I had done with all the money he had given me
D) My father told me what I had done with all the money that he had given me

Answer 1

Hint: Indirect speech is also known as reported speech and it always begins with the reporting verbs like ‘said’, ‘told’, ‘asked’ etc. We do not need to change the tense of the verbs from a direct imperative sentence, but we do change the tense of the verbs from the direct interrogative sentences.

Complete answer:
While converting a direct statement into an indirect one, we change the first person and second person pronouns to third person pronouns. We also change the verbs from the present tense to the past tense, and from the past tense to the past participle, when we are dealing with an interrogative sentence.
Option A) In this option the verb ‘told’ is incorrect, because in the direct statement we have a question mark. This means that the correct opening for the sentence would be ‘My father asked me’. Thus, this option is incorrect.
Option B) In this option the verb ‘have’ has been changed to ‘had’ which is correct. But in the second clause of the sentence, the pronouns ‘I’ and ‘you’ have not been changed to ‘he’ and ‘me’. Therefore, this option is incorrect.
Option C) In this option the verb ‘have’ has been changed to ‘had’ which is correct. Also, in the second clause of the sentence, the pronouns ‘I’ and ‘you’ have been changed to ‘he’ and ‘me’. Therefore, this option is the correct conversion into indirect speech.
Option D) In this option all the verbs and pronouns have been interchanged correctly. But, the verb ‘told’ has been used incorrectly. It should have been ‘asked’ as the direct speech in the question is ending with a question mark. Therefore, this option is incorrect.

Thus, the correct answer is Option (C).My father asked me what I had done with all the money he had given me.

Note: People often get confused whether to use the word ‘said’ or ‘told’ while reporting a sentence. This is determined from the tone of the direct statement. When the direct statement is a factual sentence it begins with ‘said’. For e.g. “He said that he was not feeling well.” We use the word ‘told’ when the direct statement is an order or a command. For e.g. “The teacher told me to get out of the class.”