Question

Suresh said, "I did it yesterday." Which one of the following options is the correct form of this sentence in indirect speech?

• A. Suresh said that I did it yesterday.
• B. Suresh says I did it yesterday.
• C. Suresh says that he did it the day before.
• D. Suresh said that he had done it the day before.

Hint:

A past tense reporting verb pushes the reported verb one step further back in tense, and time words like "yesterday" must also shift.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

This question tests the rules of converting direct speech into indirect (reported) speech. When the reporting verb is in the past tense, three things change together: the pronoun, the verb tense, and any time word that points to "now" from the speaker's original moment.

The direct sentence is: Suresh said, "I did it yesterday." Since the reporting verb "said" is in the past tense, the reported clause must also move one step back in tense, from simple past to past perfect. The pronoun "I" refers to Suresh himself, so in reported speech it becomes "he". The word "yesterday" is tied to the day the statement was made, so in reported speech it becomes "the day before" (or "the previous day"), because we are no longer speaking on that same day.

1. Suresh said that I did it yesterday.: The reporting verb "said" is correctly past tense, but the pronoun "I" and the time word "yesterday" are left unchanged. Reported speech never keeps the original speaker's pronoun as "I" when a third person is reporting the sentence, so this option is wrong.
2. Suresh says I did it yesterday.: This keeps the reporting verb in the present tense ("says"), which does not match the original, since Suresh "said" it in the past. The pronoun and time word are also unchanged. Wrong on three counts.
3. Suresh says that he did it the day before.: The pronoun "he" and time word "the day before" are correct, but the reporting verb "says" is present tense, so it does not match the original past reporting verb "said". Wrong.
4. Suresh said that he had done it the day before.: The reporting verb "said" stays past tense, the pronoun correctly changes from "I" to "he", the verb backshifts from simple past "did" to past perfect "had done", and "yesterday" correctly becomes "the day before". Every rule is applied correctly.

The correct option is (D), because it is the only one that backshifts the tense, changes the pronoun, and converts the time expression together, exactly as the rules of indirect speech require.

Let's summarize:

• A past tense reporting verb ("said") forces the reported verb one step further back in tense (simple past becomes past perfect).
• Pronouns change to match who is now speaking about whom.
• Time words tied to "today" shift to match the new point of view: yesterday becomes the day before.

So the correct indirect speech version is option (D): "Suresh said that he had done it the day before."