Examkin

Question

Difficulty: HardDirect and Indirect (Reported) Speech

Which of the following options accurately renders the direct speech sentence below into indirect speech?

"How long have you been waiting here for the manager?" the receptionist asked the visitor.

  1. The receptionist asked the visitor how long he had been waiting there for the manager.Answer
  2. B
    The receptionist asked the visitor how long had he been waiting there for the manager.
  3. C
    The receptionist asked the visitor how long he has been waiting here for the manager.
  4. D
    The receptionist asked the visitor how long he was waiting here for the manager.

Answer

The correct indirect speech form is: 'The receptionist asked the visitor how long he had been waiting there for the manager.'
The correct answer accurately applies all three mandatory transformations for reported questions: backshifting the present perfect continuous verb ('have been waiting') to the past perfect continuous ('had been waiting'), converting the spatial adverb ('here' to 'there'), and changing the question word order into normal statement word order ('he had been' instead of 'had he').

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the tense, aspect, pronouns, adverbs, and sentence type in the direct speech.
Direct speech: Present perfect continuous tense ('have been waiting'), second person pronoun ('you'), spatial adverb ('here'), interrogative sentence structure.
Converting reported speech requires systematically updating tenses, pronouns, adverbs, and clause structure based on the past tense reporting verb ('asked').
2
Apply backshift and word order rules for indirect questions.
The verb 'have been waiting' backshifts to 'had been waiting'. The interrogative word order ('have you been') changes to declarative order ('he had been').
In indirect questions, auxiliary verbs do not invert before the subject, and present perfect forms shift to past perfect.
3
Adjust pronouns and adverbs of place/time.
'You' refers to the visitor ('he'), and 'here' shifts to 'there'.
Spatial and personal references change to match the reporting perspective.

Key Concept

Tense backshift, adverb transformation, and clause word-order inversion in reported questions
Rate this question

Topics

Direct and Indirect (Reported) Speech

More questions from this topic