Question

Convert the following sentence to indirect speech:
She said to me, “John would arrive before David.”
a)She said to me that John will arrive before David.
b)She told me that John would arrive before David.
c)She told me that John will be arriving before David.
d)John said that John will arrive before David.

Answer 1

Hint: Indirect speech is also called reported speech. We write them without quotation marks because we don’t have to directly quote what the speaker said. The quotation marks in the direct speech are replaced by the word ‘that’ in indirect speech.

Complete answer:

We can see that the given sentence has a modal verb. A modal verb is used to express functions such as permission, obligation, advice, etc. Some examples of modal verbs are: can, could, may, might, etc.
When we convert a direct speech having a modal verb into an indirect speech, we have to follow some rules. For example, may change into might, can change into could, etc. However, certain modal verbs do not change. Some examples of such modal verbs which do not change when being converted from direct to indirect speech are would, could, might, etc.
We can see that in the given sentence, the modal verb ‘would’ have been used. When we convert the given sentence into indirect speech, the verb in the indirect speech will remain unchanged. Thus, the indirect speech will be, ‘She told me that John would arrive before David’. Therefore, the correct answer is option b.
Option a is wrong because the tense of the sentence changes to future tense with the usage of ‘will’. If the direct speech has ‘will’, it changes into ‘would’. But if the direct speech has ‘would’, it does not change into ‘will’.
Option c is incorrect because the indirect speech is in the future continuous tense. ‘Will be arriving’ is future continuous tense. When cannot convert the given sentence into a sentence which is in the future continuous tense?
Option d is wrong because when we are reporting what something someone else had said, we need to include who told it. John did not tell me that he will arrive before David. John told some girl and that girl told it to me. Also, the tense of the sentence is changed into the future tense.

Note: If a direct speech has words like ‘shall’ and ‘will’, they change into ‘should’ and ‘would’ respectively. But if a direct speech has ‘would’, it will remain as ‘would’ since they are modal verbs. These exceptions need to be read by the students.