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Question

Difficulty: MediumDirect and Indirect (Reported) Speech

The high court registrar warned the defence counsel, "You must submit all additional affidavits by noon tomorrow." Which of the following options represents the correct indirect speech rendering of the sentence above?

  1. The high court registrar warned the defence counsel that he had to submit all additional affidavits by noon the following day.Answer
  2. B
    The high court registrar warned the defence counsel that he must submit all additional affidavits by noon tomorrow.
  3. C
    The high court registrar warned the defence counsel that he has to submit all additional affidavits by noon the next day.
  4. D
    The high court registrar warned the defence counsel that he would submit all additional affidavits by noon tomorrow.

Answer

The correct indirect speech rendering is: The high court registrar warned the defence counsel that he had to submit all additional affidavits by noon the following day.
The correct option properly changes the second-person pronoun 'You' to 'he', backshifts the modal verb of obligation 'must' to 'had to', and converts the time adverbial 'tomorrow' into 'the following day' to agree with the past-tense reporting verb 'warned'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the reporting verb and tense requirement
The reporting verb 'warned' is in the past tense, requiring tense backshifting and adjustments to pronouns and temporal adverbs.
In reported speech, a past-tense reporting verb forces backshifting of the modal verb and conversion of proximal time expressions.
2
Backshift modal obligation and convert time expressions
'You' shifts to 'he', 'must' backshifts to 'had to', and 'tomorrow' shifts to 'the following day'.
Under standard rules of reported speech, modal obligation expressed by 'must' shifts to 'had to', while 'tomorrow' changes to 'the following day' or 'the next day'.

Key Concept

Backshifting Tenses and Time Adverbials in Indirect Speech
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Topics

Direct and Indirect (Reported) Speech

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