Question

Choose the indirect speech of the given sentence.
The priest said, “May you win the match!”
A) The priest prayed that I should win the match.
B) The priest wished that I might win the match.
C) The priest said that I would win the match.
D) The priest said that might I win the match.

Answer 1

Hint: Indirect speech or reported is usually talk about the past so we normally change the tense of the spoken words.

Complete answer:
Option A) The priest prayed that I should win the match – is an incorrect answer because ‘The priest prayed that I should win the match’ is not an indirect speech. Indirect speech is used to report something in your own words, so, here may should convert it into might. And this is not seen in indirect speech in this sentence. Thus, this is an incorrect answer.

Option B) The priest wished that I might win the match – is the correct answer because ‘The priest wished that I might win the match’ is the correct form of the indirect speech. Thus, this is the correct answer.

Option C) The priest said that I would win the match – is an incorrect answer because ‘The priest said that I would win the match’ here would is incorrectly used in the sentence, would is the past tense form of will. Because it is a past tense, it is used: to talk about the past, so, wouldn't be used here instead might be used. Thus, this is an incorrect answer.

Option D) The priest said that might I win the match – is an incorrect answer because ‘The priest said that might I win the match’ might be wrongly used here, instead of might I it should be I might. Thus, this is an incorrect answer.

Hence, the correct answer is Option ‘B’.

Note:Indirect Speech is used to report something in our own words. General rules for changing direct speech into indirect speech is to omit all inverted commas or quotation marks, and end the sentence with a full stop. If the verb inside the inverted commas or quotation marks is in the present tense, change it into the corresponding past tense. Like 'May' is changed to might. Hence, option B is the most appropriate answer as compared to any other option.