Question

Choose the most appropriate indirect narration of the given sentence :
Hamid said, "What a fascinating flower it is!"
a)Hamid said what a fascinating flower it was.
b)Hamid said that it was a fascinating flower.
c)Hamid exclaimed that it was a very fascinating flower.
d)None of the above.

Answer 1

Hint: Indirect narration is indirect speech. Indirect speech is expressing the speaker’s statement in a reporting manner.

Complete step-by-step answer:

The given sentence is indirect speech as it quotes the statement uttered by the speaker as it is. In order to find its appropriate indirect narration, we must first understand what an indirect narration is. As given to us in the hint, it is indirect speech. In order to convert a direct speech to indirect speech, the following rules must be kept in mind:
1)The appropriate form of the suitable reporting verb such as say, exclaim, reply, etc must be used.
2)The sentence must be in the past tense.
3)The conjunction ‘that’ must be placed before reporting the statement that was uttered.
Now that we have understood what indirect speech is and how to convert direct speech to indirect speech, let us analyze the given options to find the correct answer.
a)In the first option, we observe that the use of the conjunction, ‘that’ is absent. Thus, it is not the correct indirect narration of the given sentence. Hence, the option ‘a’ is not the correct answer.
b)In the second option, we observe that the unsuitable reporting verb has been used. The statement uttered was an exclamatory sentence and thus, the reporting verb must be, ‘exclaimed’. Hence, it is not the correct indirect narration of the given sentence. Therefore, option ‘b’ is not the correct answer.
c)In the third option, we observe that all the rules are correctly being followed and hence, it is the correct indirect narration of the given sentence. Therefore, the option ‘c’ is the correct answer.
d)Option ‘d’ is not valid as option ‘c’ is the correct answer.
Thus, we can conclude that option ‘c’ - “Hamid exclaimed that it was a very fascinating flower.” is the correct answer.

Note: It is to be noted that the rules of forming an indirect speech sentence must be understood correctly to avoid making any mistakes.