Choose the correct indirect narration of the following statement from the given alternatives:
Timothy said to Bianca, "I would like to tell you that everybody in this building is doing his work sincerely."
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Explanation
Correct Answer: Timothy told Bianca that she would like to tell her that everybody in that building was doing his work sincerely.
Explanation
• Reporting verb: 'said to' changes to 'told' in indirect speech for an assertive sentence.
• Conjunction: The inverted commas are replaced by the conjunction 'that'.
• Modal verb: 'would' remains unchanged in indirect speech.
• Pronoun change: The second-person pronoun 'you' changes according to the listener (Bianca) to 'her'.
• Demonstrative adjective: 'this' changes to 'that' (i.e., 'this building' becomes 'that building').
• Tense change: The present continuous tense ('is doing') changes into the past continuous tense ('was doing').