Question

Convert direct speech into indirect speech.
I had difficulty in understanding him, so I said to him, “Please repeat what you said.”
A) I asked him to repeat what he said.
B) I told him to please repeat what he said.
C) I requested him to repeat what he said.
D) I told him that please repeat what you said.

Answer 1

Hint: Information can be conveyed in two forms, primarily, namely, direct and indirect speech. Direct speech refers to what the speaker himself wishes to convey to the person in front of him. Indirect speech refers to that which is reported to a third person. The meaning doesn’t change but the format of the sentence along with the tenses are bound to change. Reported speech can be found in newspapers, hence, reading them would help understand both the speeches better.

Complete answer:
 Now, from the options given above,
>I asked him to repeat what he said: The first person did not ask the second person, instead he asked in a polite statement.
>I told him to please repeat what he said: This is incorrect, since words such as please would be replaced by other words.
>I requested him to repeat what he said: This is the correct format of the indirect speech to be used, including the right words on how the statement was made and the tenses.
>I told him that please repeat what you said: The form of the sentence is incorrect.

Hence, Option a, is the correct answer.

Note: It is possible to hesitate between Option a and Option c, but the sentence, being a request resolves the confusion. For instance, if the clause was, “Could you repeat what you said?” then, then reported speech would have been that of Option a (I asked him to repeat what he said), but since, the word, “Please” is present in the clause, then the reported speech becomes that of a request.