Reported Speech

Respuesta correcta: B) She said that she was tired.

• A) She said that she is tired.In reported speech the present simple becomes the past simple.
• B) She said that she was tired.Pronoun and tense shift: 'I' becomes 'she' and 'am' becomes 'was'.
• C) She says that she was tired.The reporting verb must be 'said' in the past to match the narrative tense.
• D) She said that I was tired.The pronoun refers to the reporter's 'I', which is wrong here.

Respuesta correcta: D) He asked me where I lived.

• A) He asked me where did I live.Question word order cannot remain in a reported question.
• B) He asked me where do I live.'Do' stays in the present only if the reporting verb is present, which it is not.
• C) He asked me if where I lived.'If' introduces yes/no questions, not questions with a wh-word.
• D) He asked me where I lived.Direct questions become word-order statements with a backshifted verb.

Respuesta correcta: C) They said that they had finished the project.

• A) They said that they have finished the project.The tense has not been backshifted to the reporting past.
• B) They said that we had finished the project.The pronoun must refer to the same participants, so 'they' is correct.
• C) They said that they had finished the project.Present perfect backshifts to the past perfect 'had finished'.
• D) They said that they would finish the project.That would be a future in the past, not a backshift of the present perfect.

Respuesta correcta: A) He said that he would call me the next day.

• A) He said that he would call me the next day.'Will' becomes 'would'; 'the next day' is the classic time backshift.
• B) He said that he will call me tomorrow.Neither the modal nor the time expression has been backshifted.
• C) He said that he calls me the next day.The reporting tense is past, so the verb must be backshifted too.
• D) He said that he would have called me the next day.The past perfect would imply an action completed before another past moment.

Respuesta correcta: D) The teacher said that we had to submit the report that day.

• A) The teacher said that we must submit the report today.Leaving the modal and the time expression unchanged misses the tense shift.
• B) The teacher said that we must to submit the report that day.A modal can never be followed by 'to' in this structure.
• C) The teacher said that we should submit the report that day.'Should' reports advice, not the obligation that was announced.
• D) The teacher said that we had to submit the report that day.'Must' is reported as 'had to' when the obligation came from an external rule.

Respuesta correcta: C) The verb should be 'was' and 'now' should become 'then'.

• A) Nothing is wrong; reported speech can keep the present tense.The present can remain only in simultaneous-reporting cases, not in this narrative.
• B) Only the pronoun 'she' is wrong.The pronoun is correct because it refers to the subject of the reporting verb.
• C) The verb should be 'was' and 'now' should become 'then'.Both the tense backshift and the time expression must change in reported speech.
• D) Only 'now' is wrong.Both elements require modification; the verb backshift is mandatory.

Respuesta correcta: D) The mechanic said that he could fix it the next day.

• A) The mechanic said that he can fix it tomorrow.Neither the modal nor the time expression has been backshifted to the reporting past.
• B) The mechanic says that he could fix it the next day.The reporting verb must remain in the past for the backshift to make sense.
• C) The mechanic said that he must fix it the next day.'Must' would change the meaning from possibility to obligation.
• D) The mechanic said that he could fix it the next day.'Can' becomes 'could' and 'tomorrow' becomes 'the next day' in the reported clause.

Respuesta correcta: B) She asked me if I had finished the homework.

• A) She asked me if did I finish the homework.The auxiliary must not be inverted in a reported question.
• B) She asked me if I had finished the homework.'If' plus backshifted past perfect: standard reported yes/no question.
• C) She asked me that I had finished the homework.'That' introduces statements, not questions.
• D) She asked me if I finished the homework.'Finished' would be correct only with a present reporting verb.

Respuesta correcta: A) The doctor said that I should rest for a week.

• A) The doctor said that I should rest for a week.'Should' has no past form and remains unchanged in reported speech.
• B) The doctor said that I should rest for a week ago.'A week ago' would place the rest in the past, which contradicts the advice.
• C) The doctor said that I rested for a week.Dropping the modal loses the advisory meaning of the original sentence.
• D) The doctor said that I would rest for a week.'Would' would report a future event, not advice given in the past.

Respuesta correcta: A) It becomes 'her book' to keep the reference to the same person.

• A) It becomes 'her book' to keep the reference to the same person.Reporting requires the possessive to shift so ownership stays the same.
• B) It becomes 'my book' because the speaker takes ownership.That would change the meaning: the book belongs to the woman, not to the reporter.
• C) It becomes 'their book'.The pronoun 'their' has no basis in the original sentence.
• D) The possessive disappears and only 'the book' remains.Removing the possessive loses the ownership information entirely.

Respuesta correcta: C) He asked what time the meeting started.

• A) He asked what time did the meeting start.Inverted question order cannot survive into the reported clause.
• B) He asked what time the meeting will start.The tense must move to the past because the reporting verb is past.
• C) He asked what time the meeting started.Wh-word retained, auxiliary before the subject, tense backshifted.
• D) He asked that what time the meeting started.'That' cannot introduce a wh-question directly.

Respuesta correcta: D) The manager told us that we would be notified by email.

• A) The manager told us that we will be notified by email.No backshift was applied even though the reporting verb is past.
• B) The manager told us that we will notified by email.Two errors: the passive is missing and the tense was not backshifted.
• C) The manager told that we would be notified by email.The reported clause needs the subject 'we' explicitly retained.
• D) The manager told us that we would be notified by email.'Would be notified' correctly reports a future passive event.

Respuesta correcta: B) He had already been waiting for an hour at that past moment.

• A) He waited for an hour and will wait more.The sentence makes no claim about a future action.
• B) He had already been waiting for an hour at that past moment.Past perfect continuous shows the waiting started earlier and was still ongoing.
• C) He is waiting for an hour now.Present continuous is not what 'had been waiting' expresses.
• D) He had waited for an hour before he started.The continuous form stresses the ongoing activity, not a completed one.

Respuesta correcta: A) told

• A) told'Told' plus object plus reported command is the correct pattern here.
• B) suggested'Suggested' would require a proposal of options rather than a command.
• C) warned'Warned' would imply the speaker anticipated a negative consequence.
• D) ordered'Ordered' usually requires an authority, such as the police or a judge.

Respuesta correcta: B) He told us to wait there.

• A) He told us waiting there.A gerund cannot replace the to-infinitive after 'told somebody to do'.
• B) He told us to wait there.'Told' plus object plus to-infinitive is the standard pattern for reporting commands.
• C) He told us that we must wait there.A that-clause with a modal is possible but less direct than the infinitive pattern.
• D) He told we to wait there.'Told' requires an object pronoun: 'told us', not 'told we'.

Respuesta correcta: C) He asked where I was going.

• A) He asked where are I going.Auxiliary inversion is not allowed in a reported question.
• B) He asked where I am going.No tense backshift was applied, although the reporting verb is 'asked'.
• C) He asked where I was going.Present 'are' becomes past 'was' in the reported question.
• D) He asked where I were going.'Were' does not agree with the first person singular 'I'; it would be 'was'.

Respuesta correcta: B) She said that she had already gone home.

• A) She said that she is going home.Present continuous is not a past perfect form.
• B) She said that she had already gone home.'Had gone' places the departure before another past moment.
• C) She said that she would go home.That is a future in the past, not a past perfect.
• D) She said that she goes home.Present simple would need a present reporting verb.

Respuesta correcta: A) was

• A) was'Is closed' backshifts to 'was closed' inside the reported clause.
• B) isNo tense backshift was applied to the reported clause.
• C) will be'Will be' would report a future fact, not the museum's regular closing day.
• D) has been'Has been' would suggest the museum has remained closed since that Monday.

Respuesta correcta: D) Tenses, pronouns, questions and time expressions change.

• A) Only the pronouns change.Tenses and question forms also change; pronouns are only part of the process.
• B) Nothing changes except the punctuation.Ignoring all these changes would leave the two forms identical.
• C) The meaning always disappears in reported speech.Reported speech preserves the meaning while changing the grammatical form.
• D) Tenses, pronouns, questions and time expressions change.Reported speech reformulates the same information from another point in time.

Respuesta correcta: C) He said that he was very tired.

• A) He said that he very tired.Removing the verb entirely leaves an incomplete clause.
• B) He says that he is very tired.Changing the reporting verb to the present is a rewrite, not a correction of the backshift.
• C) He said that he was very tired.The present simple in the reported clause must become the past simple.
• D) He said that he has been very tired.'Has been' implies a duration up to now, which the original does not express.