Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
“Have you seen my grammar book?” Nancy wanted to know _________ grammar book.
(a)whether she’d seen my
(b)if I’d seen her
(c)did I see her
(d)I’d seen her

Answer 1

Hint: Simple present tense 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. To convert a question into reported speech, a word like ‘whether’ or ‘if’ is added.

Complete answer: In grammar, there are two kinds of speech - Direct and Indirect.

In direct speech, we use quotes to repeat the exact thing an individual said. However, in indirect speech, the direct quote is said in third person, and so the quotation marks are removed. In order to change the indirect speech into direct speech, we must change the tense of the sentence, and make the necessary punctuation changes.
When we want to report something someone said without speech marks, we use indirect speech. It is also called reported speech.

From direct to indirect, the tense changes from present to past.
Now we know exactly what we are looking for. Let’s look at the given options:

(a)whether she’d seen my - This option does not contain the correct possessive and it does not fit into the context of the given sentence. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
(b)if I’d seen her - This option contains the correct possessive and it fits into the context of the given sentence. This is the required answer. So, this is the correct option.
(c)did I see her - This option contains the correct possessive, however, it does not fit into the context of the given sentence, as it is grammatically incorrect for reported speech. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
(d)I’d seen her - This option contains the correct possessive, however, it does not fit into the context of the given sentence, as it is grammatically incorrect for reported speech. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect 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.