Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate option.
"I spoke to Jane last week," she said.
She said _____________________
a. I spoke to Jane last week.
b. she had spoken to Jane last week.
c. she had spoken to Jane a week before.
d. I had spoken to Jane a week before.
e. she spoke to Jane a week before.

Answer 1

Hint: Indirect speech is reported speech, which is a form of speech used to express what another has said, and also often involves a change in tense.

Complete answer:
In the given question, the first sentence is in direct speech, which is the writing of speech, using the exact words of the speaker, usually between quotation marks.
The starting of the second sentence indicates that it is in indirect speech, which often starts with ‘she/he/they said’. Therefore, we have to correctly report the first sentence to fill in the blank.
Let us analyze the options given to us in this question:
- Option (a.), 'I spoke to Jane last week', refers to ‘she’ in first person (‘I’), which is incorrect as first or second person pronouns usually change to third person pronouns in indirect speech. Also, in indirect speech, time related terms usually change in this way:
Last week- a week before/ the previous week
Therefore, option (a.) is incorrect.
- Option (b.), ‘she had spoken to Jane last week', uses past perfect tense, which is incorrect as in reported speech, here, it should simply change from simple present tense to simple past tense. This option also does not make the necessary changes in the time expression.
Therefore, option (b.) is incorrect.
- Option (c.), ‘she had spoken to Jane a week before', refers to uses past perfect tense, which is incorrect as in reported speech, here, it should simply change from simple present tense to simple past tense.
Therefore, option (c.) is incorrect.
- Option (d.), ‘I had spoken to Jane a week before', refers to ‘she’ in first person (‘I’), which is incorrect as first or second person pronouns usually change to third person pronouns in indirect speech. It uses past perfect tense, which is incorrect as in reported speech, here, it should simply change from simple present tense to simple past tense.
Therefore, option (d.) is incorrect.
- Option (e.), ‘she spoke to Jane a week before', uses the right tense and the right time expression in reported speech.

> Therefore, option (e.) is correct.

Note: In this question, keep in mind that in reported speech, many things including the tense, time expression and the pronouns change, however, the implication of what the subject has said does not change.