Question

Change the following statement into indirect speech-
The policeman said, “Did you see the accident scene?”
a. The policeman asked that I had seen the accident scene.
b. The policeman told that I had seen the accident scene.
c. The policeman asked that if I had seen the accident scene.
d. The policeman asked that if he had seen the accident scene.

Answer 1

Hint: We need to follow certain rules while changing a sentence from direct to indirect speech-
i) We remove the quotation marks in indirect speech.
ii) The tense of the verb changes into corresponding past tense.
iii) The pronoun of the direct speech changes in the indirect speech.
iv) We use ‘if’ or ‘whether’ in interrogative indirect speech sentences.

Complete answer:
As given in the hint, direct speech can be changed into indirect speech on the basis of the above given rules.
Direct speech refers to the original words of a speaker, whereas Indirect speech refers to the report of a person’s wordings in the past tense form of the verb.
Now, in the given question: We know that it is an interrogative sentence. Hence, we will remove the quotation marks and add an introductory reporting verb ‘asked’ along with ‘if’ to join the two clauses.

Let’s examine the given options-

a. The policeman asked that I had seen the accident scene- The given sentence does not have a suitable conjunction that joins the two clauses. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
b. The policeman told that I had seen the accident scene- The given sentence lacks the reporting verb ‘asked’ and does not have a suitable conjunction that joins the two clauses. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
c. The policeman asked that if I had seen the accident scene- The given sentence is accurate as it includes both ‘asked’ and ‘if’. Hence, it is the correct option.
d. The policeman asked that if he had seen the accident scene- The pronoun ‘he’ changes the meaning of the whole sentence. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
The correct answer is Option ‘c’.

Note: There is no change in the sentence, if the reporting verb has been given in the present tense or future tense form.