Question

Change the following from direct to reported speech:
The mother asked her children, "Have you had breakfast yet?"

• A. The mother asked her children if they had had breakfast yet.
• B. The mother asked her children if they had breakfast yet.
• C. The mother asked her children have you had breakfast yet.
• D. The mother asked her children have they had breakfast yet.

Answer 1

The correct option is A The mother asked her children if they had had breakfast yet.

When you're converting a sentence from direct speech to reported speech, the quotation marks (" ") are omitted and the tense of the direct speech changes, a link word is added that links the clause before the quotation marks ("The mother asked her children,") to the clause in quotation marks ("Have you had breakfast yet?"). The direct speech here is in the present perfect tense, as suggested by the phrase "have you had", hence the tense is changed to past perfect, the present participle 'have' changes to 'had' + 'had' which was already in the sentence. (A participle is a verb form that functions an adjective). Option A has the correct formation of words, 'if' is the linking word and the reported speech is in past perfect tense "if they had had breakfast". Option B is incorrect because there's a single 'had' in this sentence, whereas it occurs twice. In the original sentence 'had' is already present, and the past participle of 'have' which is 'had' is rewritten, so that 'had' is written twice in a row. Option C is incorrect because the direct speech has not been changed, only the quotation marks have been omitted, but the tense and form have not been changed. Option D is incorrect because the tense of the speech has not been changed to past perfect.