A sentence is provided in direct speech. From the four given options, choose the one that most accurately conveys the sentence in its corresponding Indirect speech.
She said, "I didn't see him at the station."
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The correct answer is Option 2 i.e. She said that she had not seen him at the station.
Grammatical Concept/Meaning:
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Reporting Verb: Since "said" is in the past tense, the tense of the verb in the reported speech must change (Backshift).
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Tense Shift Rule: The Simple Past Tense ("didn't see") in direct speech converts to the Past Perfect Tense ("had not seen") in indirect speech.
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Pronoun Change: The first-person pronoun "I" refers to the speaker ("She"), so it changes to "she" in the indirect version.
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Conjunction: The conjunction "that" is used to introduce the reported statement.
Correction/Reasoning:
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She said that: This sets up the indirect statement correctly.
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She had not seen: This correctly applies the past perfect tense ($had + V3$) to indicate an action completed before the moment of speaking.
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Him: The third-person pronoun "him" remains unchanged as per the rules of narration.
Final Sentence: She said that she had not seen him at the station.
Hence, the chosen option is correct.