Select the option that expresses the given sentence in Direct to Indirect Speech. He said, "I don't like spicy food."
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
Transformation from direct to indirect speech:
When converting from direct to indirect speech, several grammatical shifts occur:
Reporting Verb: The reporting verb "said" remains as "said" (or can be followed by the optional conjunction "that").
Pronoun Shift: The first-person pronoun "I" in direct speech refers to the speaker, so it changes to the third-person pronoun "he".
Tense Backshift: Since the reporting verb "said" is in the past tense, the present simple tense of the quoted speech ("don't like") must "backshift" to the past simple tense ("didn't like").
Punctuation: Quotation marks are removed, and the sentence ends with a single period.
Indirect speech: He said that he didn't like spicy food.