Question

Choose the correct reported speech sentence from the below:

• A. She said she is unwell.
• B. I asked him what he is doing here.
• C. He said that he had solved the problem.
• D. He said you have played well.

Hint:

In Reported Speech, when the reporting verb is in the past tense, the verb of the reported speech usually changes one step back (Present $\rightarrow$ Past, Past $\rightarrow$ Past Perfect).

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Concept: Reported (Indirect) Speech is used to report what someone has said without quoting the exact words. When the reporting verb is in the past tense, the tense of the reported speech usually changes (backshifts). Common tense changes are: \[ \begin{aligned} \text{Simple Present} &\rightarrow \text{Simple Past} \text{Present Continuous} &\rightarrow \text{Past Continuous} \text{Present Perfect} &\rightarrow \text{Past Perfect} \text{Simple Past} &\rightarrow \text{Past Perfect} \end{aligned} \]

Step 1: Examine each option.
Option (A): \[ \text{She said she is unwell.} \] If the original statement was in the present tense, after the reporting verb “said”, it should normally become: \[ \text{She said she was unwell.} \] Hence, this is incorrect.

Step 2: Check Option (B).
\[ \text{I asked him what he is doing here.} \] The correct reported speech should be: \[ \text{I asked him what he was doing there.} \] Both the tense and the adverb need to change.

Step 3: Check Option (C).
\[ \text{He said that he had solved the problem.} \] This correctly changes the tense to the Past Perfect and follows the rules of indirect speech. Hence, this sentence is grammatically correct.

Step 4: Check Option (D).
\[ \text{He said you have played well.} \] After “said”, the tense should become: \[ \text{had played} \] Therefore, this option is incorrect.

Step 5: Final conclusion.
Hence, the correct answer is: \[ \boxed{\text{He said that he had solved the problem.}} \]