Question

Change the following sentence into reported speech:

Father said to Sunil, "I can help you with your homework".

Answer 1

Hint: Pay heed to, Punctuation, Tense, and usage of the correct Pronoun. Help wouldn't be changed into 'Helped' as it is preceded by a modal 'can'.

Complete answer:

There are certain rules we must follow to convert direct speech into reported one. In the given sentence we are provided with a conversation held between father and Sunil. The first and foremost rule to convert direct speech into reported speech is to omit all the punctuation marks in between a sentence and end it with a full stop. The second rule is 'said to' changes to 'told that'. If a direct speech is given in the present tense, its reported speech will have a corresponding past tense. The sentence given is in simple present tense where a father says to provide help to his son, hence it's reported form will be written in the simple past tense.
By following all the grammatical rules of conversion of Direct speech into Reported speech, the final answer frames as,
Father told Sunil that he could help him with his homework.

Note: The easiest way to crack questions based on Narration is to imagine a situation where you are being told something by a person and you have to convey it to the other person in the same way. Automatically, you will be able to use the correct 'Tense' and 'Pronoun' required.