Question

Choose the most appropriate option for the indirect speech conversion of the following statement.
‘What do you want?’ she asked him.
A) She ask him what did he wanted
B) She asked him what do you want.
C) She asked him if he wanted anything
D) She asked him what he wanted

Answer 1

Hint:Indirect speech is a means of expressing the content of statements, questions or other utterances, without quoting them explicitly as is done in direct speech. For example, He said "I'm coming" is direct speech, whereas He said he was coming is indirect speech.

Complete answer:
Option A) She asked him what he wanted – is an incorrect answer because ‘she asked him what he wanted’ is a wrong sentence and grammatically incorrect. If we want to convert direct into indirect speech it conveys the speaker's message in own words. The use of ‘did’ is incorrect and this is an incorrect answer.
Option B) She asked him what do you want – is an incorrect answer because ‘she asked him what do you want’ is not an indirect speech. Thus, this is an incorrect answer.
Option C) She asked him if he wanted anything – is an incorrect answer because when we report a Wh-question, we use a reporting verb like asked or enquired. Thus, option C is an incorrect answer.
Option D) She asked him what he wanted – is the correct answer because this option follows the rule of converting direct speech into indirect speech. If the sentence is expressing a positive feeling, then do/does is removed from the sentence. Keeping in accordance with these rules, option D is the correct answer.

Hence, the correct answer is Option ‘ D’.

Note: General rules for changing direct speech into indirect speech. Omit all inverted commas or quotation marks. End the sentence with a full stop. If the verb inside the inverted commas/quotation marks is in the present tense, change it into the corresponding past tense. Thus, Option D is the most appropriate answer as compared to any other option.