Choose the correct indirect narration of the following statement from the given alternatives:
The judge said, "What do you have to say on your defence?"
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Explanation
The original sentence is in direct speech: "The judge said, 'What do you have to say on your defence?'"
To convert this to indirect speech, the following changes are made:
The reporting verb 'said' changes to 'asked' because it is a question.
The question structure changes to a statement structure, and the question word 'what' is retained as a conjunction.
The pronoun 'you' changes to 'he' (assuming the person being addressed is male).
The present tense verb 'do you have' changes to the past tense 'he had' because the reporting verb is in the past tense ('said'/'asked').
The pronoun 'your' changes to 'his'.
Option ‘D’ implement all these changes.