Question

Sam: Do you want to play tennis?
Sue: No, not really
Convert the above conversation to reporting speech:
A) Sam asked Sue do you want to play tennis and Sue replied no not really.
B) Sam asked Sue did she want to play tennis and Sue replied no not really.
C) Sam asked Sue if she wanted to play tennis and Sue replied no not really.
D) Sam asked Sue if she wanted to play tennis to which Sue replied negatively.

Answer 1

Hint: The two ways of relating what a person has said are direct and indirect or reported speech. In indirect or reported speech, the exact meaning of the speaker is not expressed in the exact words.

Complete answer:
Option A) Sam asked Sue do you want to play tennis and sue replied no not really - This option is incorrect because the present tense ‘want’ will be changed to the past tense ‘wanted’ and ‘you’ will be changed to ‘she’. So, this option is an incorrect answer.
Option B) Sam asked Sue did she want to play tennis and Sue replied no not really - This option is incorrect because the present tense ‘want’ will be changed to the past tense ‘wanted’. So, this option is an incorrect answer.
Option C) Sam asked Sue if she wanted to play tennis and Sue replied no not really - This option is incorrect as the sentence in this option does not make any sense in the blank. Thus, this is an incorrect answer.
Option D) Sam asked Sue if she wanted to play tennis to which Sue replied negatively - This option is correct because when direct question are converted into indirect speech the present tense is changed to simple past tense (wanted) and ‘you’ is changed to ‘she’ and ‘no’ is replaced by the adverb ‘negatively’. Thus, this is the correct answer.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘D’.

Note: Direct speech defines the exact words spoken are in the original form and are kept inside the inverted commas, whereas indirect speech does not use the exact wordings of the speakers and they are put in the inverted commas as we use in the direct speech.

General rule of converting direct speech into indirect speech is to omit the inverted commas and full stops at the end of the sentence or the statement. If the verb is in the present tense in inverted commas then it has to convert it into corresponding past tense.