Question

Ann said to me, “ Are you working tomorrow?”
Convert into indirect speech.
a)Ann asked me if I was working the next day.
b)Ann asked me whether I was working the next day.
c)Ann told me that I was working the next day.
d)Ann said to me that you are working the next day.

Answer 1

Hint: We change the form of a sentence when we convert it from direct speech to indirect speech. Usually, indirect speech is introduced by the verb ‘said’ along with the subject, as in I said, Bill said, or they said.

Complete step-by-step answer:

 We use indirect speech as a means of expressing the content of statements, questions, or other utterances without quoting them explicitly as it is done indirect speech.
For example, He said "I'm coming" is in the direct speech, whereas He said (that) he was coming is in indirect speech. The indirect speech should not be confused with the acts of indirect speech.
We need to follow certain rules while changing a sentence from direct to indirect speech-

1)We remove the quotation marks.

2)The tense of the verb is altered into its corresponding past tense form of the verb in the indirect speech.

Let’s look at the given options-
Option a ‘Ann asked me if I was working the next day’ indicates the correct use of the above-given rules, as we can see the use of past continuous tense and we can also use ‘if’ to join the two clauses. Hence, it is the correct option.
Option b ‘Ann asked me whether I was working the next day’ also indicates the appropriate use of the above-given rules, as we can see the use of past continuous tense and ‘whether’ which is used to join two clauses. Hence, it is the correct option.
Option c ‘Ann told me that I was working the next day’ denotes the inaccurate use of the reporting verb ‘told’, as we only use ‘asked’ in interrogative indirect speech. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
Option d ‘Ann said to me that you are working the next day’ indicates the use of present continuous tense and the inappropriate pronoun ‘you’. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
The correct answer is Option ‘a’ and ‘b’.

Note: It is important to keep in mind that we only use the past tense form of the verb in indirect speech.