Question

Convert the given direct speech into indirect:
Tony said, “Please help me in completing this work.”
a) Tony said that please help me in completing this work.
b) Tony said to please him me in completing this work.
c) Tony said to please help him in completing that work.
d) Tony requested to help him in completing that work.

Answer 1

Hint: Simple present tense sometimes gets converted into simple past tense in indirect speech, as it is a reported form of speech. It is not the exact quote someone said.

Complete answer:
 In grammar, there are two types of speech that are recognized - direct and indirect.
In direct speech, the sentence is written exactly as the person said it. However, in indirect speech, a third person repeats the sentence that was originally said, so there are many changes in the sentence.
From direct speech to indirect speech, the tense has to be changed from present to past. When you convert a sentence from direct to indirect speech, the tense has to be changed compulsorily. So, to change the speech here, we must change it to simple past tense.
However, the person has made a request. So, we can simply change the main verb to ‘requested’.
So, the phrase ‘Please help me in completing this work’ will be converted into a tense that is different from its own. It cannot stay the same, as that would not clarify the exact meaning of the sentence.

Now we know what we are looking for from the options. Let’s look at the given options-
a) Tony said that please help me in completing this work. - In this option, the tense or the direct object pronoun have not been changed. This is not grammatically correct. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
b) Tony said to please him me in completing this work. - In this option, the tense has been changed but the direct object pronouns are not placed correctly. This is not grammatically correct. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
c) Tony said to please help him in completing that work. - In this option, the main verb is incorrect. This is not grammatically correct. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
d) Tony requested to help him in completing that work. - In this option, everything is correctly placed. This is grammatically correct. This is the required answer. So, this is the correct option.

Note:
 Identify the grammatically correct and the most contextually sound option. There are certain rules to be followed for converting direct speech to indirect speech in order for it to be grammatically correct.