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Question

Difficulty: EasyDirect and Indirect (Reported) Speech

Choose the sentence that accurately converts the direct statement into indirect speech:
"I will travel to Lagos next week," declared the manager.

  1. The manager declared that he would travel to Lagos the following week.Answer
  2. B
    The manager declared that he will travel to Lagos next week.
  3. C
    The manager declared that he would travel to Lagos next week.
  4. D
    The manager declared that I would travel to Lagos the following week.

Answer

The correct reported speech sentence is 'The manager declared that he would travel to Lagos the following week.'
The correct option properly changes the reporting elements following a past-tense reporting verb: the subject pronoun 'I' shifts to 'he', the modal verb 'will' backshifts to 'would', and the temporal adverbial 'next week' changes to 'the following week'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the reporting verb tense and the components requiring shift.
The reporting verb 'declared' is in the past tense, requiring backshift of modal verbs, pronouns, and time adverbs.
When the reporting verb is in the past tense, the reported clause must undergo grammatical shifts.
2
Apply backshift rules to verbs, pronouns, and adverbs.
'I' becomes 'he', 'will' becomes 'would', and 'next week' becomes 'the following week'.
Indirect speech shifts first-person pronouns to third person, present/future modals to past forms, and direct time references to relative past time expressions.

Key Concept

Tense, Pronoun, and Time Adverbial Changes in Reported Speech
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Topics

Direct and Indirect (Reported) Speech

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