Question

Choose the correct option to complete the sentence in indirect speech-
Alice said, “Dennis is sleeping now.’
Alice said that Dennis ____ then.
(a)Is being slept
(b)Is sleeping
(c)Was being slept
(d)Was sleeping

Answer 1

Hint: Read the sentence and understand the context. Now go through the options and use the hit and trial method to guess which option expresses the given meaning the best. Make sure that there is a subject-verb agreement.

Complete answer:
There are two types of reported speech- Direct and Indirect speech. Direct speech expresses the original words spoken by the speaker, whereas Indirect speech expresses the words spoken by a speaker in the past. We put direct speech in quotation marks to state the exact words or quotes of a speaker.
Let’s look at the rules that we need to follow while changing a sentence from direct to indirect speech-
(i)We remove the quotation marks in indirect speech.
(ii)The tense of the verb usually changes in the past tense.
In the given question- We can conclude that Alice said that Dennis was sleeping then.
Here, we have used ‘was sleeping’ because the main verb in the direct speech is linked with the present tense form of the verb ‘to be’. Hence, we need to use the past tense form of the verb ‘to be’ that corresponds with the continuous tense.
Now, let’s examine the given options-
Option a- ‘Is being slept’ is an incorrect option because it is grammatically inaccurate in the given context.
Option b- ‘Is sleeping’ is an incorrect option because it is already given in the direct speech and we need to change it into the past tense.
Option c- ‘Was being slept’ is an incorrect option because it is grammatically inaccurate in the given context.
Option d- ‘Was sleeping’ is the correct option because the past tense of the verb ‘to be’ is ‘was’.’
The correct answer is Option ‘d’.

Note: Keep in mind, the pronouns also change depending upon their use in the sentence. For example- (1) Ana said, “I am singing.” (2) Ana said that she was singing.