A sentence is provided in indirect speech. From the given four options, choose the one that most accurately conveys the sentence in its corresponding direct speech.
The teacher stated that water boiled at 100 degrees Celsius.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The correct answer is option 2 i.e. "Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius," the teacher stated.
Changes required:
- Conjunction: While converting indirect to direct speech, the conjunction “that” is removed and quotation marks (“ ”) are added.
- Tense:
- The sentence “water boiled at 100 degrees Celsius” is a universal truth. Universal truths do not change tense while converting to direct speech.
- Therefore, “boiled” changes back to boils.
- Pronoun: No pronoun change is required as the subject “the teacher” remains outside the quotation marks.
- Reporting verb: “Stated that” becomes “stated,” before the quoted sentence.
- Other changes: Capitalisation is done after the opening quotation mark.
Converted sentence: "Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius," the teacher stated.
Hence, the chosen option is correct.