Question

Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate word.
Ann: “Is your sister good at English?”
Ann asked me ________________________________.

a) That my sister is good at English
b) If my sister was good at English
c) Whether my sister is good at English
d) My sister is good at English
e) Her sister was good at English

Answer 1

Hint: Here, the requirement of the question is that we need to turn the direct speech question into an indirect speech statement. An indirect speech does not report the exact same words even if it implies the same meaning.

Complete answer:

There are two ways of relating to what a person has said and they are –
1) Direct speech, and
2) Indirect or reported speech.
Indirect speech, we repeat the exact original words of the speaker. In indirect speech, the exact meaning is expressed but the use of the original and exact words of the speaker is not used.
Keep in mind that – pronouns and possessive adjectives usually change from first or second person to the third person except when the speaker is reporting his own words. Sometimes even a noun can be inserted to avoid doubt.
Whenever we turn direct speech questions and exclamations into indirect speech, they are converted to affirmative statements, i.e. the symbols ‘?’ and ‘!’ are not used.

In the above question, the solution in option ‘b’ is correct. Because when we convert the given direct question to indirect speech the word ‘if’ is used as the question doesn't begin with a question word, ‘asked’ is used as the introductory verb, the simple present tense is changed to simple past tense, and ‘your’ is changed to ‘my’.
Now, the other options are wrong because ‘if’ is not used – is, her sister can't be used.

Note: While changing the direct speech into indirect you have to be careful that the meaning is similar to that of the statement provided to us. Because even if we change the statement we can not change the meaning.