In the following question, a sentence has been given in Direct/Indirect speech. Out of the four alternatives suggested, select the one which best expresses the same sentence in Indirect/Direct speech.

He said to Raina, "I cannot marry you now but I shall surely do so next year."

Question

Question

This question was previously asked in

SSC CGL Tier 2 English Previous Paper 13 (Held On: 12 Jan 2017)

Attempt Online

He told Raina that he cannot marry her now but would surely do so the following year.
He told her that he could not marry Raina then but would surely marry her next year.
He told Raina that he could not marry her then but he would surely do so the following year.
He told Raina that he would not marry her then but would surely do so the next year.

Answer 1

The correct answer is option 3.

The sentence has been given in Direct speech.

While converting the given sentence to Indirect speech,

All inverted commas or quotation marks are omitted and the sentence ends with a full stop.
The conjunction ‘that’ is added before the indirect statement.
The present modal 'can not' changes into the past modal 'could not'.
Words expressing nearness in time or place in Direct Speech generally change into words expressing distance in Indirect Speech. Hence, 'now' changes to 'then'.
The first person of the reported speech changes according to the subject of reporting speech('I' changes to 'he'. The second person of reported speech changes according to the object of reporting speech('you' changes to 'her').
'Said to' changes to 'Told'. 'Told' is used when there is an object to receive the action from the subject.
- Eg - a) Direct: He said to them, "You have to complete your jobs.”

b) Indirect: He told them that they had to complete their jobs.