Question

Change the following statement into indirect speech.
Ramesh said, “I was having my dinner when the peon called upon me.”
A) Ramesh said that he had been having his dinner when the peon called upon him.
B) Ramesh said that I was having my dinner when the peon called upon him.
C) Ramesh told that he had been having my dinner when the peon called upon me.
D) Ramesh told that he had been having dinner when the peon called upon me.

Answer 1

Hint: When a person speaks something and we write it down as it is within inverted commas, it is said to be a direct speech. Here, we use the exact same words that were spoken. When we convey this same message to a third person and we do not use the original words of the speaker, then this becomes an indirect speech.

Complete answer:
To convert a sentence into indirect speech, we use words like said, informed, told, etc. before the main statement. Also, in the main statement, we change all the first pronouns to third-person pronouns.
Option A) In this sentence, the main statement is preceded by the words ‘said that’ and in the main statement we can see that the first person pronouns like my and me are changed to third person pronouns like his and him. Therefore, this is the correct option.
Option B) In this sentence, the main phrase begins with the words ‘said that’, so this part is correct. But the pronoun ‘my’ in the main statement has not been changed to ‘his’. Therefore, this option is wrong.
Option C) In this sentence, the main statement begins with ‘told’ which is also a correct approach. In the main statement, we can see that both the pronouns ‘my’ and ‘me’ have not been changed to third-person pronouns. Thus, this option is also wrong.
Option D) In this sentence, the main statement is preceded by ‘told that’. This is also a correct way of beginning an indirect statement. But the first person pronoun, ‘me’ has not been changed into a third person pronoun i.e. ‘him’. Therefore, this option is also wrong.

Thus, the correct answer is Option (A) Ramesh said that he had been having his dinner when the peon called upon him.

Note: Indirect speech is used to report the words spoken by someone directly, without using the inverted commas or quotation marks. If we begin the indirect speech with ‘say’ then the main statement is written in the present tense. If we use the word ‘said’ in the beginning then the main statement is in the past tense. Therefore, indirect speech is also called ‘reported speech’.