Convert the following direct speech sentence into indirect speech by selecting the correct option.
The police officer asked, "Have you witnessed the incident?"
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
Correct Answer: The police officer asked if I had witnessed the incident.
Explanation
• Reporting Verb: The reporting verb 'asked' is kept as it is for direct questions.
• Conjunction: For yes/no questions, the conjunction if or whether is used to connect the reporting clause to the reported speech.
• Tense Change: Since the reporting verb is in the past tense ('asked'), the present perfect tense (have witnessed) changes to the past perfect tense (had witnessed).
• Pronoun Change: The second-person pronoun 'you' changes to the first-person pronoun 'I'.
• Sentence Structure: The interrogative form changes to an assertive (declarative) structure: subject + auxiliary verb + main verb ('I had witnessed').