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Question

Difficulty: MediumDirect and Indirect (Reported) Speech

What is the correct reported speech equivalent of the sentence below?

The principal asked the prefect, 'Why did you leave the assembly hall early yesterday?'

  1. The principal asked the prefect why he had left the assembly hall early the previous day.Answer
  2. B
    The principal asked the prefect why he left the assembly hall early yesterday.
  3. C
    The principal asked the prefect that why he had left the assembly hall early the previous day.
  4. D
    The principal asked the prefect why did he leave the assembly hall early the day before.

Answer

The principal asked the prefect why he had left the assembly hall early the previous day.
The correct choice properly shifts the simple past verb 'did leave' to the past perfect 'had left', changes the time adverb 'yesterday' to 'the previous day', maintains declarative word order ('why he had left'), and omits any redundant conjunction such as 'that'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the key components of the direct speech sentence.
The reporting verb 'asked' is in the past tense, the reported clause is a wh-question ('Why did you leave...'), and the time expression is 'yesterday'.
These structural markers dictate the rules for tense backshifting, word order rearrangement, and time adverbial modification.
2
Apply backshifting to the verb and modify the temporal adverb.
The simple past tense 'did leave' shifts to the past perfect tense 'had left', and 'yesterday' converts to 'the previous day'.
When reporting past events with a past-tense reporting verb, simple past verbs shift back to past perfect, and time references adjust to match the reported frame of reference.
3
Adjust word order and connector for reporting a wh-question.
The question word 'why' acts as the joiner without 'that', and subject-verb inversion is removed ('why he had left').
Indirect questions require declarative sentence word order and do not use the subordinating conjunction 'that'.

Key Concept

Reporting wh-questions with past-tense reporting verbs
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Topics

Direct and Indirect (Reported) Speech

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