Question

Choose the indirect speech of the given sentence.
Mona said, “I love oranges but my brother likes apples.”

A) Mona said that she loves oranges but my brother likes apples.
B) Mona said that she loved oranges but her brother liked apple
C) Mona said that I loved oranges but my brother liked apples
D) Both B and C

Answer 1

Hint: Indirect speech is a way of expressing the content of statements, questions, or other utterances, without even quoting them explicitly like direct speech. The indirect speech should not be confused with indirect speech acts.

Complete step by step answer:
First, analyze all the given option to be able to choose the correct option,
‘Mona said that she loves oranges but my brother likes apples’, in this the present tense is kept as it refers to the world ‘loves’ and the first-person pronoun ‘my’ is being used for describing an indirect speech. Thus, this option is incorrect.

‘Mona said that she loved oranges but her brother liked apple’, in this sentence the present particle is changed to past particles and the only third-person pronoun is being used. So, the correct answer is “Option b”.

‘Mona said that I loved oranges but my brother liked apples’, after said that first-person pronouns such as ‘I’ and ‘my’ are being used in the sentence to represent an indirect speech. Thus, this option is incorrect.

Since only option B is correct and option C is incorrect. Therefore, this option is also incorrect.

Note:
An example for indirect speech, He said "I'm coming" is direct speech, whereas He said (that) he was coming is indirect speech.