Convert the following indirect speech sentence into direct speech by selecting the correct option.
The Education Minister said that scholarships would be awarded to deserving students next academic year.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
Correct Answer: The Education Minister said, "Scholarships will be awarded to deserving students next academic year."
Explanation
• When converting indirect speech into direct speech, the modal auxiliary verb 'would' reverts to 'will' when the original utterance is in the simple future tense.
• The reporting clause 'The Education Minister said' remains unchanged, followed by a comma and opening quotation marks.
• The conjunction 'that' is removed in direct speech.
• Therefore, 'scholarships would be awarded' becomes '"Scholarships will be awarded..."'.
Quick Tip: Direct to Indirect: will → would; Indirect to Direct: would → will.