Question:
Select the correct indirect speech form of the given sentence.
The teacher said, “Do not waste your time.”
Select the correct indirect speech form of the given sentence.
The teacher said, “Do not waste your time.”
The teacher said, “Do not waste your time.”
Show Hint
When converting negative commands or advice (e.g., “Do not...”) to indirect speech, always look for the pattern “not + to-infinitive” (not to + verb) in the choices.
This simple pattern allows you to eliminate grammatically incorrect options quickly.
This simple pattern allows you to eliminate grammatically incorrect options quickly.
Updated On: May 27, 2026
- The teacher advised us do not waste our time.
- The teacher advised us not to waste our time.
- The teacher said that we did not waste our time.
- The teacher ordered that do not waste time.
Show Solution
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The Correct Option is B
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Understanding the Question:
The objective of this question is to identify the correct indirect speech representation of the given direct speech sentence.
The sentence in direct speech is: “The teacher said, 'Do not waste your time.' ”
This is an imperative sentence containing a negative command or a piece of advice.
We need to apply the standard rules of narration for transforming negative imperatives into indirect speech.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
1. In reporting imperative sentences, the reporting verb “said” is changed to an appropriate verb like “advised”, “ordered”, “requested”, or “forbade” depending on the context of the speech.
Since a teacher typically guides students, the verb “advised” is the most appropriate reporting verb here.
2. When changing negative imperatives (starting with “do not” or “don't”) to indirect speech, we convert the negative imperative verb into a negative infinitive, which is “not to + verb”.
Therefore, “Do not waste” must be converted to “not to waste”.
3. The second-person possessive pronoun “your” refers to the audience (in this context, “us” or the students), which must be converted to the first-person plural possessive pronoun “our” in indirect speech.
4. Let us evaluate option (A): “The teacher advised us do not waste our time.”
This is incorrect because it retains “do not” directly instead of using the negative infinitive “not to”.
5. Let us evaluate option (B): “The teacher advised us not to waste our time.”
This correctly converts “said” to “advised”, uses the proper negative infinitive structure “not to waste”, and appropriately changes the pronoun to “our”.
6. Let us evaluate option (C): “The teacher said that we did not waste our time.”
This is incorrect because it changes the sentence structure into a simple declarative sentence in the past tense, which fails to convey the imperative advice of the original statement.
7. Let us evaluate option (D): “The teacher ordered that do not waste time.”
This is grammatically flawed because the conjunction “that” cannot be directly followed by an imperative verb phrase like “do not waste” in indirect narration.
Step 3: Final Answer:
Therefore, the correct option is (B).
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