Select the option that expresses the given sentence in direct speech.
She said that she could bake cookies.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
The correct answer is option 3, i.e.: “She said, ‘I can bake cookies.'
In the given indirect speech, “she said that she could bake cookies,” the modal verb “could” is the past form of “can”. To convert it to direct speech, we revert it back to the present modal form, “can”, and reintroduce quotation marks.
The reporting verb “said” is already in the past tense, so it remains unchanged when switching to direct speech.
The other options are incorrect:
Option 1 ('She had said, ‘I can bake cookies.’') unnecessarily changes the tense of the reporting verb.
Option 2 ('She says…') shifts it to present tense, which misrepresents the original past reporting act.
Option 4 ('She said, ‘I may bake cookies.’') changes the modal and meaning inaccurately.