Question

Choose the indirect speech of the given sentence.
The monkey said, “I have left my heart on the tree”.
A. The monkey said that I had left his heart on the tree.
B. The monkey said that he has been left his heart on the tree.
C. The monkey said that he had left his heart on the tree.
D. None of the above

Answer 1

Hint: To convert a sentence into an Indirect speech the sentence must follow some rules which include that there should be no inverted commas or question marks, that is used as a conjunction and pronoun ‘I’ is changed to ‘he’. In the case of the present perfect tense, reported speech is formed by using the past perfect tense.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Option A the monkey said that I had left his heart on the tree is an incorrect option because according to the rule of Indirect speech there should be no inverted commas or question marks, that is used as a conjunction and pronoun ‘I’ is changed to ‘he’. Since in this option ‘I’ is not changed to ‘he’ therefore, it is not the indirect speech for the sentence: The monkey said, “I have left my heart on the tree”.
Option B the monkey said that he has been left his heart on the tree is an incorrect option because according to the rule of Indirect speech In the case of the present perfect tense, reported speech is formed by using the past perfect tense.
Option C The monkey said that he had left his heart on the tree is a correct option because indirect speech is used to talk about the past or to report something in our own words. In the case of the present perfect tense, reported speech is formed by using the past perfect tense. Inverted commas are removed and 'that' is used as a conjunction. Therefore, the sentence would become: The monkey said that he had left his heart on the tree making it a correct option.
Option D None of the above is an incorrect option because the sentence: The monkey said that he had left his heart on the tree making it a correct option according to the rules of indirect speech.
Option C is the correct answer.

Note: Indirect speech is used to talk about the past or to report something in our own words. We use reporting verbs like 'say', 'tell', 'ask', and we may use the word 'that' to introduce the reported words.