A sentence is provided in indirect speech. From the four given options, choose the one that most accurately conveys the sentence in its corresponding direct speech.
He mentioned that his team would start the project next week.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The correct answer is option 1 i.e. He mentioned, 'My team will start the project next week.'.
Changes required:
Conjunction: The conjunction “that” is removed, and the comma and inverted commas (“ ”) are inserted to introduce the direct speech.
Verb: The reporting verb “mentioned” remains the same.
Tense: In indirect speech, “would” is used as the past form of “will”. Therefore, for direct speech, “would” changes back to “will” to indicate the future tense from the speaker's perspective.
Pronoun: The third-person possessive pronoun “his” changes to the first-person possessive pronoun “My” to reflect the speaker's original words.
Others: The phrase “next week” remains the same as it correctly indicates the future timing in both forms in this context.
Converted sentence: He mentioned, 'My team will start the project next week.'
Hence, the chosen option is correct.