Reported Speech Advanced

Respuesta correcta: A) Lucia said she was flying to SJO that night.

• A) Lucia said she was flying to SJO that night.Correct! A present continuous reporting a future arrangement backs shifts to the past continuous, and 'tonight' becomes 'that night'.
• B) Lucia said she is flying to SJO that night.The present simple would describe a habit, but the original spoke of one arranged future trip, so the tense must move back.
• C) Lucia said she will fly to SJO that night.'Will' belongs to the original future; after a past reporting verb the future is expressed with 'was going to' or 'would'.
• D) Lucia said she flies to SJO tonight.'Tonight' must be deictic-adjusted to the moment of reporting, so keeping the time word unchanged breaks the rule.

Respuesta correcta: B) The host asked where she did surf most often.

• A) The host asked where she surfed most often.The auxiliary 'do' is used in questions, not in reported questions; the reported clause takes the plain present 'surfed'.
• B) The host asked where she did surf most often.Correct! A yes-no question reports with 'asked' plus an embedded question word order and no auxiliary 'do'.
• C) The host told where she surfed most often.'Tell' never introduces a question, because 'tell somebody something' needs a person as its object, not a clause.
• D) The host asked that where she surfed most often.A reported question is an embedded clause, so it is not introduced by 'that' as a full declarative would be.

Respuesta correcta: C) Don Miguel told us we would have to close the road the following day.

• A) Don Miguel said we will have to close the road tomorrow.'Will' cannot survive a past reporting verb unchanged, and 'tomorrow' is relative to the moment of speaking.
• B) Don Miguel said we would have to close the road the next day.The tense shift and the time word are right, but 'said' does not take an indirect object, so the addressee is missing.
• C) Don Miguel told us we would have to close the road the following day.Correct! 'Said' reports a statement, 'told' plus the person reports it with its receiver, 'will' becomes 'would' and 'tomorrow' becomes the following day.
• D) Don Miguel said we would closing the road the following day.'Would closing' mixes the auxiliary with a bare gerund; the modal 'would' must be followed by the infinitive 'to close'.

Respuesta correcta: D) She said she didn't have a telephone at home.

• A) She said she doesn't have a telephone at home.The present simple keeps the negative in the present, which contradicts the past reporting verb 'said'.
• B) She said she hadn't a telephone at home.After a past reporting verb the negative auxiliary itself becomes past: 'didn't' turns into 'hadn't', not 'hadn't' plus the bare verb.
• C) She said she didn't had a telephone at home.'Didn't' is already negative, so adding 'had' double-negates and distorts the original meaning.
• D) She said she didn't have a telephone at home.Correct! Past simple negative with 'did' keeps its shape when there is no future or modal shift to apply, because 'did' already marks the past.

Respuesta correcta: B) would leave

• A) will leave'Will leave' keeps the original future, which is only correct when the reporting verb is present, not past.
• B) would leaveCorrect! A present simple in the direct question reports as 'would', because the simple future refers to a future moment seen from the past.
• C) left'Left' changes the meaning into a completed past action, which the original schedule does not state.
• D) leaves'Leaves' leaves the present simple untouched, so the reported question would still refer to a repeated present habit.

Respuesta correcta: A) could borrow

• A) could borrowCorrect! A direct question about ability reports as 'could', since the modal carries the politeness of the original request.
• B) can borrow'Can' reports a present ability; only when the reporting verb is past does it become 'could'.
• C) could to borrowA modal is always followed by the bare infinitive, so 'could to borrow' has an extra 'to'.
• D) borrowed can'Borrowed can' reverses the order and turns the modal into the main verb of the clause.

Respuesta correcta: C) The client asked me to send the report by that Friday.

• A) The client said me to send the report by Friday.'Said' does not take an indirect object, so 'said me' cannot report a request addressed to someone.
• B) The client requested sending me the report by Friday.'Requested' reports an order but never accepts a person as its object, so the addressee disappears.
• C) The client asked me to send the report by that Friday.Correct! 'Asked somebody to do something' is the reported form of a polite request, and 'by Friday' shifts to 'by that Friday'.
• D) The client asked me sending the report by that Friday.The structure 'ask somebody doing something' does not exist; after 'to' the verb needs the bare infinitive 'send'.

Respuesta correcta: B) He said he had to rest for a week.

• A) He said he must rest for a week.'Must' here expresses the patient's own obligation, which becomes 'had to' once the reporting verb is past.
• B) He said he had to rest for a week.Correct! Reported obligation shifts from 'must' to 'had to', and the time expression stays intact.
• C) He said he must to rest for a week.'Must' takes the bare infinitive, so an extra 'to' makes the clause ungrammatical.
• D) He said he rested for a week.'Rested' reports a completed action instead of an obligation, which loses the meaning of the original sentence.

Respuesta correcta: D) The witness said we had been told to wait outside.

• A) The witness said us to wait outside.'Said us' is not possible, because 'say' never takes an indirect object in English.
• B) The witness said we were told to wait outside yesterday.Adding 'yesterday' invents a time reference that the direct speech never contained.
• C) The witness told we were told to wait outside.'Told' needs a person before the clause, and a bare 'we' is not an acceptable receiver for it.
• D) The witness said we had been told to wait outside.Correct! The past perfect is required because the instruction was received before the moment of reporting.

Respuesta correcta: A) Ana said they had already visited the crater.

• A) Ana said they had already visited the crater.Correct! The present perfect reports as the past perfect, the adverb 'already' stays, and 'we' becomes 'they' when the pronoun is changed.
• B) Ana said they have already visited the crater.'Have visited' would report a present fact, which cannot be true while the reporting verb is past.
• C) Ana said they already visited the crater.'Already visited' without any auxiliary leaves the clause unfinished and loses the perfect aspect.
• D) Ana said they would already visit the crater.'Would visit' reports an intention that the original sentence never expressed.

Respuesta correcta: B) Diego said he had been waiting for the bus for an hour.

• A) Diego said he has been waiting for the bus for an hour.The present perfect continuous cannot stay in the present once the reporting verb is past.
• B) Diego said he had been waiting for the bus for an hour.Correct! The present perfect continuous reports as the past perfect continuous, with the duration phrase unchanged.
• C) Diego said he would waiting for the bus for an hour.'Would waiting' mixes a modal with a gerund instead of the infinitive the modal requires.
• D) Diego said he is waiting for the bus for that hour.'Is waiting' keeps the original tense and also changes the duration into a single marked hour.

Respuesta correcta: C) The witness said she had finished her homework before her sister arrived home.

• A) The witness said she finished her homework after her sister arrived home.This keeps the present simple, which loses the past sequence the original sentence establishes.
• B) The witness said she finishes her homework after her sister arrived home.'Finishes' turns a completed past action into a repeated present one, so the chronology disappears.
• C) The witness said she had finished her homework before her sister arrived home.Correct! 'After' in the past triggers the past perfect for the earlier action, and 'after' becomes 'before'.
• D) The witness said she would finish her homework after her sister arrived home.'Would finish' projects the action into the future and breaks the past chronology entirely.

Respuesta correcta: D) She said she was driving when the officer stopped her.

• A) She said she would be driving when the officer stopped her.'Would be driving' is the report of a future in progress, not of a past situation interrupted.
• B) She said she drove when the officer was stopping her.'Drove' loses the continuous aspect, so the sentence no longer shows the action interrupted at that moment.
• C) She said she has been driving when the officer stopped her.The present perfect has no use in a past narrative where two interrupted actions meet.
• D) She said she was driving when the officer stopped her.Correct! Both clauses are already past continuous, so the narration of a past interruption keeps them unchanged.

Respuesta correcta: B) Because the present perfect has to become the past perfect after a past reporting verb.

• A) Because a reported clause can never follow the verb 'say'.'Say' is one of the standard reporting verbs, so the construction is perfectly normal.
• B) Because the present perfect has to become the past perfect after a past reporting verb.Correct! 'Has met' points to a period reaching the present, which must move to 'had met' once the reporting verb is past.
• C) Because the word 'yet' cannot appear in reported speech.Time adverbs such as 'yet', 'already' and 'ever' are carried into reported speech without restriction.
• D) Because the subject pronoun 'she' must become 'he' when the speaker changes.Pronouns change only when the reference changes; a first-person statement reported as 'she' keeps the third person.

Respuesta correcta: A) Move each tense one step back and adjust the time and place words to the new reference point.

• A) Move each tense one step back and adjust the time and place words to the new reference point.Correct! That is the two-part procedure of the rule: a backshift for tense and a realignment of deictic expressions.
• B) Keep every tense exactly as it was written and change nothing else.Tenses that are already past are normally kept, and time words always need adjusting, so freezing the clause is always wrong.
• C) Replace the reporting verb with 'tells' to keep the original present moment.Changing the reporting verb to a present form removes the need for any shift, but it also changes when the reporting happened.
• D) Move every tense to the past simple, whatever the original form was.Collapsing every form into the past simple destroys the difference between a habit, a completed event and a state in progress.

Respuesta correcta: C) He told me he had given the letter to me the day before.

• A) He said he gives me the letter the day before.Gave reports as 'gave' when the reporting verb is itself the reporting word, so 'says he gives' mixes two frames.
• B) He said he had given me the letter the previous day.The tense shift and the time word are correct, but 'gave' does not take the person as its object, so the receiver is lost.
• C) He told me he had given the letter to me the day before.Correct! 'Told' receives the person, 'gave' shifts to the past perfect, and 'yesterday' becomes the day before.
• D) He gave told me the letter the previous day.'Gave told' is not an English construction; a reporting verb cannot be inserted inside another verb.

Respuesta correcta: B) The subject of 'had finished' may be the asker or the person asked.

• A) The tense is wrong, because a reported question can never use the past perfect.The past perfect is perfectly normal here, since the asking happened before the finishing.
• B) The subject of 'had finished' may be the asker or the person asked.Correct! Reported questions drop the inverted word order of the direct question, so the subject of 'had finished' is no longer fixed by the structure.
• C) The word 'whether' cannot introduce a reported question.Both 'if' and 'whether' are standard openers of a reported yes-no question.
• D) The verb 'asked' does not allow a clause as its object.'Ask' normally takes a clause as its object, as in 'She asked what time it was'.

Respuesta correcta: D) She said she might arrive early.

• A) She said she must arrive early.'Must' reports a strong obligation, which is far more certain than the possibility expressed in the original.
• B) She said she can arrive early.'Can' reports ability or permission, which is a different relationship to the event than a remote possibility.
• C) She said she would arrive early.'Would' reports a future or a conditional, and it loses the idea of a small chance.
• D) She said she might arrive early.Correct! 'Might' already expresses possibility, so the shift keeps the same degree of uncertainty.

Respuesta correcta: B) Use 'they', shift 'can' to 'could' and 'approves' to 'approved' inside the conditional.

• A) Keep 'we' and 'can', and replace 'if' with 'when'.Keeping the present modal leaves the reported speech anchored in the present, and 'when' proposes a certainty the original never stated.
• B) Use 'they', shift 'can' to 'could' and 'approves' to 'approved' inside the conditional.Correct! The pronoun change, the modal shift and the tense shift inside the conditional all follow from a past reporting verb.
• C) Shift 'can' to 'could' and leave every other element untouched.The pronoun also has to change when the reported speaker is a third person, so leaving it as 'we' is wrong.
• D) Shift 'we' to 'they' but keep the conditional in the present.A conditional clause whose consequence is still open must move with the rest of the reported clause to the past.

Respuesta correcta: A) She said she would rather stay at home that night.

• A) She said she would rather stay at home that night.Correct! 'Would rather' keeps its form, the infinitive 'stay' stays bare, and the time word shifts to that night.
• B) She said she would rather stayed at home that night.'Would rather' is followed by the bare infinitive, never by the past form 'stayed'.
• C) She said she would rather to stay at home that night.An extra 'to' after 'would rather' produces a mixture of the infinitive and the subjunctive patterns.
• D) She said she would rather staying at home that night.'Would rather' does not take a gerund, so 'rather staying' is not an accepted form.