Select the option that expresses the given sentence in indirect speech.
The manager said to the peon, “Why were you absent yesterday?”
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The correct answer is option 2 i.e. The manager asked the peon why he had been absent the previous day.
The original sentence is a direct question in the past tense: “Why were you absent yesterday?”
When converting to indirect speech, the question word “why” remains, and the verb tense shifts to past perfect because the action (absence) happened before the speaking time.
Option 2 correctly uses “had been absent” and “the previous day” (instead of “yesterday”).
Option 1 incorrectly uses past simple “was absent” instead of past perfect.
Option 3 is grammatically incorrect; the question word order is wrongly kept.
Option 4 uses “enquired” (which is correct), but the verb tense is incorrect as it remains past simple.