Question

Choose the correct indirect speech form of the given statement.
Sheenu said to Tina, "I bought this book for you a day before yesterday."

• A. Sheenu told Tina that she bought that book for you a day before the previous day
• B. Sheenu told Tina that she had bought that book for her a day before yesterday
• C. Sheenu told Tina that she had bought that book for her a day before the previous day
• D. Sheenu said Tina about the purchase of the book a day before yesterday

Answer 1

Answer: (C)

Sheenu told Tina that she had bought that book for her a day before the previous day

There are certain rules while converting sentences into indirect speech form. We change the tense of the sentence into its corresponding past tense. Since this sentence is in the past tense, we change it into the past perfect tense. Pronouns should be changed appropriately, i.e. changing 'you' to 'she'. The words expressing nearness in time or places are generally changed into words expressing distance; 'yesterday' should be 'the previous day' in the indirect speech.

According to the mentioned rules, option C is the correct answer.

Option A is incorrect because neither the tense nor the pronoun has changed in the indirect speech. The sentence should be in the past perfect tense and the pronoun 'you' should be 'she' in the indirect speech.

Option B is incorrect because the word 'yesterday' has not been changed to either 'the previous day' or 'the day before'.

Option D is incorrect because the indirect speech form of the statement is not in the same pattern as the original direct speech.