Question

Ann said to me, "he is very lazy". Rewrite in reported speech.
А. Ann told me that he is very lazy.
B. Ann told me that he was very lazy.
C. Ann told me that I am very lazy.
D. Ann said to me that I was very lazy.

Answer 1

Hint: You have to rewrite the sentence in the reported speech which means an indirect speech. Apply the general rules of indirect or reported speech in order to identify the right answer.

Complete answer:
Rules of reported speech are :
1) Tense after conversion should stay the same.
2) Apart from that, the word ‘that’ is almost always used.
3) The word I become he, she or they.

Example : 1) "Mary said 'I ate the pie."' becomes
"She said that she ate the pie."
2) "I am buying my ticket." (Present continuous)
-> He said he was buying his ticket. (Past continuous)
3) Will becomes would. Shall will become should.
4) Tomorrow becomes the next day or the following day.

- Therefore, the most appropriate answer is B which Ann told me that he was very lazy.
- Present tense converts to the corresponding past tense.
- If the reporting verb is in the past tense, the tense of the reported verb is changed into its corresponding past form. The reporting verb in the given sentence, 'said', is in the past form. Therefore, the reported verb, 'is' will change into 'was'.
- Option A,C,D are incorrect as they do not follow the rule of changing the speech into the corresponding past form.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘B'.

Note: The word that in the reported speech is a key word without which the answer will be considered wrong.