Question

Choose the option that correctly transforms the given sentence into reported speech:
He said to his father, “Please increase my pocket money.”
A) He told his father, please increase the pocket money.
B) He pleaded with his father to please increase my pocket money.
C) He requested his father to increase his pocket money.
D) He asked his father to increase his pocket money.

Answer 1

Hint: In the given question, we have to form an indirect speech (reported speech). Direct speech refers to reporting the same and exact words of the speaker. Meanwhile, indirect speech refers to reporting the sentence of the speaker in its own words to a third party without changing its objective by converting it into past tense.

Complete answer:
In order to change the sentence into indirect speech, we have to change the tense of the sentence into past tense. However, when the speaker is speaking about some facts or universal truth, the tense is not changed.

Let us evaluate the options:
Option A) He told his father, please increase the pocket money – This option is incorrect because first of all in order to change direct speech into indirect speech, we have to eliminate all punctuations. Second, the child is requesting the father so the word “please” needs to be converted into “requested”. Moreover “to” is not used in the sentence which is necessary as part of indirect speech.
Option B) He pleaded with his father to please increase my pocket money – This option is incorrect because the word “please” is not converted into “requested”.
Option C) He requested his father to increase his pocket money – This option is correct because it is appropriate as per the rules of indirect speech by including “to” and converting “please” into “requested” showing a request being made by the child to his father to increase his pocket money.
Option D) He asked his father to increase his pocket money – This option is incorrect because the child is not simply asking the father; rather he is requesting. There is no question involved. Hence “asked” cannot be used.
Hence option C is correct. Indirect speech of - He said to his father, “Please increase my pocket money.” will be - He requested his father to increase his pocket money.

Thus the correct answer is option ‘C’.

Note: Indirect speech is a declarative sentence. It cannot be in the form of a question or exclamation. Care should be taken that the meaning of the sentence is not changed while forming an indirect speech. In converting direct speech into indirect speech, few words need to be converted such as “please” into “requested”, “come” into “go”, “here” to “there” etc.