Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
“Can you come to the party?” David asked me _____________________ to the party.
a) Could he come
b) Can he come
c) If I could go
d) Whether I can come

Answer 1

Hint:We are talking about direct and indirect speech in the above question. In the case of direct speech, the exact words of the original speaker are repeated and in indirect speech (reported speech), the exact meaning of what the speaker said is expressed but not necessarily in the exact words of the speaker.

Complete answer:
In the English language, there are two ways of relating to what a person has said. The two ways are via – direct speech and indirect or reported speech.
Now, In the case of direct speech, the exact words of the original speaker are repeated and in indirect speech (reported speech), the exact meaning of what the speaker said is expressed but not necessarily in the exact words of the speaker.
So, in the above question, we can see that the question by the original speaker has been changed into a sentence (from a question). Hence, we are changing the question via indirect speech. So, let us look into the options that we have before stating the solution.
In the case of option (a) & (b) the phrase uses the pronoun ‘he’ but in reporting speech we cannot use ‘he’ hence we cannot use it as a solution.
In the case of option (c) it is the correct solution as the question within inverted commas is in simple present tense the use of ‘could’ is the correct helping verb for indirect speech.
And in the case of option (d) it does not use the appropriate conjunction and we cannot use can in the sentence. Hence, this too is an incorrect solution.

Note:
So, in the above question, we can see that the question by the original speaker has been changed into a sentence (from a question). Hence, we are changing the question into indirect speech.