SSC CGL 2019 PYQ — Question 23

The correct answer is option 3, i.e. The airline official announced that they were extremely sorry that the flight had been delayed due to heavy floods.

1. Option 1 is incorrect because during transitions from direct to indirect speech we generally place 'that' right before the beginning of the speech that's within an inverted comma. In this option 'that' is missing before 'the airline'.
2. Option 2 is incorrect because it has the same error of not including 'that' before 'the airline'. Furthermore, there is an error in tense. The direct speech uses 'said' (past tense) and the indirect speech uses 'says' (present tense). Change of tense will inevitably change the meaning and make the transition incorrect.
3. Option 3 is the correct answer because 'that' is placed in all the essential areas, the tense is correct and the meaning in both the speeches (direct/indirect) is expressed similarly.
4. Option 4 is incorrect because of the usage of 'we are' (first person). Using 'the airline' is proper indirect speech as it refers to the 'third person' (in this case the airline itself), whereas 'I', 'we' refers to first person and 'first person' is always used in direct speech when the speaker refers to him/herself.