Question

Convert the following in the reported speech:
“Customer: When will it be available?”
The customer wanted to know________________
(A) When it would be available
(B) When it will be available
(C) When would it be available
(D) When will it be available

Answer 1

Hint:Here the tense in reported speech is in present tense so it has to be converted in past tense for its conversion into indirect speech. Direct speech is a phrase in which speech marks (also known as quotation marks or inverted commas) repeat the exact words spoken whereas indirect speech is a way of communicating, without directly quoting, the content of arguments, questions or other arguments, as is done in direct speech.

Complete answer:
Direct To Indirect Speech Conversion – Reporting Verb. When the reporting verb of direct speech is in past tense then all the present tenses are changed to the corresponding past tense in indirect speech. 1) Direct and 2) indirect (reported) are the two methods of relating to what a person has said.
The exact words of the original speaker are reiterated in the direct voice.
The exact meaning of what the speaker said is reflected in the indirect voice (reported voice), but not always in the exact words of the speaker.

This is a future tense question, changed to a past tense comment. The modal 'would' is transformed to 'would'; and 'would it' is transformed to 'it'. The correct answer is "when it would be available". Hence Option A is right.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘A’.

Note: First of all study all the rules of direct to indirect conversion, only then you will be able to answer these types of questions. After reading all the given options thoroughly, assess what the correct answer is.