Question

You: Can you give me your car for a few days?

Charlie: My car was stolen a few weeks ago.

This is the conversation between Charlie and You yesterday.

Later that day you tell another friend about what Charlie said.

Use reported Speech: [Advanced]

• A. He said that his car had been stolen a few weeks ago.
• B. He said that his car was stolen a few weeks ago.
• C. He said that my car was stolen a few weeks ago,
• D. He said that his car has been stolen a few weeks ago.

Answer 1

The correct option is A He said that his car had been stolen a few weeks ago.

When we're reporting a speech, we're narrating things that happened or were said in the past. So, the speech will go one tense back.

In reported speech, we add a reporting verb (usually 'said'), the subject changes in narration ('he', 'she' or 'they') and the related words also change.

Option A: For the reported speech, 'my' changes to 'his', as the point of view has changed. 'Was stolen' is in the simple past tense, it changes to 'had been stolen', the past perfect tense.

So, the corrected reported speech for the sentence "My car was stolen a few weeks ago." is:

'He said that his car had been stolen a few weeks ago.'

Hence option A is correct.

Option B: 'Was stolen' hasn't been changed to past perfect tense 'had been stolen'.

Option C: The point of view 'my' hasn't been changed here.

Option D: 'Was stolen' is in simple past tense that needs to be changed to past perfect tense. Instead, it has been changed to present perfect tense 'has been stolen'. As a result, the meaning formed is incomplete.

Hence these options B, C and D are incorrect.