Select the option that expresses the given sentence in indirect speech.
“Why have you come so early today?” The coach asked the athlete.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The correct answer is option 2 i.e. The coach asked the athlete why he had come so early that day.
- Reporting verb: "The coach asked"
- Reproduced reported speech: "the athlete why he had come so early that day."
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Begin the indirect speech with the reporting verb and introduce it with an appropriate reporting clause (e.g., "asked," "inquired," "wanted to know," etc.) based on the tone and context of the original sentence.
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Rewrite the reported speech within quotation marks, but change the pronouns and verb tenses as needed to match the shift from the speaker's perspective to the reported perspective.
- We adjusted the verb tense ("have come" to "had come") to convey the coach's question from the reported perspective.
So correct indirect speech is: "The coach asked the athlete why he had come so early that day."