Select the most appropriate indirect form of the given sentence.
Walter said to David, “ I am looking forward to tomorrow’s auction.”
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Correct answer: D
Explanation
The correct answer is option 4 i.e. Walter told David that he was looking forward to the next day’s auction.
Change the pronouns and time references to fit the perspective of the reporting sentence.
In the direct speech, Walter uses "I" and refers to "tomorrow’s auction," which needs to be adapted for the indirect speech. Thus, "I" becomes "he" (referring to Walter), and "tomorrow’s" changes to "the following day’s" to reflect the shift in time perspective.
The present continuous tense "am looking forward to" must be adjusted to past continuous "was looking forward to" to maintain grammatical consistency in reported speech.
Replace the direct quotation marks with a reporting clause that introduces the indirect statement.
Therefore, the correct indirect form is "Walter told David that he was looking forward to tomorrow’s auction." This rephrasing maintains the meaning of the original statement while properly fitting it into the structure of indirect speech.