Select the option that expresses the given sentence in indirect speech.
The professor said to the media persons, “From our research we have come to the conclusion that there is life on that planet.”
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
The correct answer is Option 3 i.e. The professor said to the media persons that from their research they had come to the conclusion that there was life on that planet.
The given sentence is in direct speech, to convert this sentence into indirect speech we need to follow the following points:
- Inverted commas will get omitted and 'that' will be used.
- In assertive sentences which does not have a direct personal object like in the given sentence, the reporting verb 'said' remains unchanged.
- In the reporting speech, the first-person pronoun "our" becomes the third-person pronoun "their" and the first-person pronoun "we" becomes the third-person pronoun "they".
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The present perfect tense format 'Subject + have + V1 (come) + Object will be changed into the past perfect tense format 'Subject + had + V₁ (come) + Object.
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The present simple tense formal 'Subject + V1 (is) + Object' will be changed into the past simple tense format 'Subject + V₂ (was) + Object.
After following these steps, we got the indirect speech as: The professor said to the media persons that from their research they had come to the conclusion that there was life on that planet.
Hence, the correct answer is Option 3 i.e. The professor said to the media persons that from their research they had come to the conclusion that there was life on that planet.