Select the option that expresses the given sentence in indirect speech.
He said, “Shall I ever reach my destination?”
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Explanation
The correct answer is option 4 i.e. “He wondered if he would ever reach his destination.”
- The original direct question:
“Shall I ever reach my destination?”
- When converting questions into indirect speech:
- Use a reporting verb that reflects asking or wondering (here, 'wondered').
- Change the question word structure into a clause with “if” since it’s an indirect yes/no question.
- Shift the tense from future (“shall”) to the conditional future (“would”):
'shall I ever reach' → 'if he would ever reach'
- Adjust pronouns accordingly:
The first person “I” becomes “he” in reported speech.
So it becomes:
He wondered if he would ever reach his destination.
Why the other options are incorrect:
Option 1: “He said he shall never reach his destination.”
Uses “shall” incorrectly and changes meaning to a statement instead of a question.
Option 2: “He said to me I shall never reach my destination.”
Wrong person, wrong tense, and turns it into a statement.
Option 3: “He said I shall never reach his destination.”
Pronoun confusion and again, a statement not a question.