Question

Sam: What shall we do? Sue: We can go to cinema. Write in reporting speech:
A) Sam asked Sue what shall we do and Sue replied that we can go to cinema.
B) Sam asked Sue what shall they do and Sue replied that they can go to cinema.
C) Sam asked Sue what should they do to which Sue replied that they could go to cinema.
D) Sam asked Sue what they should do to which Sue replied that they could go to cinema.

Answer 1

Hint: There are two ways to relate what someone has said: 1) directly and 2) indirectly (reported speech). The exact words of the original speaker are repeated in direct voice. The same meaning is conveyed in an indirect/reported voice, but not always using the original speaker's exact words.

Complete answer:
When we use reported or indirect speech to communicate about the past, we frequently change the tense of the words we say. We utilise reporting verbs like 'say,' 'tell,' and 'ask,' and we may begin the reported words with the word 'that.'

When direct speech is in the form of a request or order, we utilise the appropriate reporting verb in the reported speech to transform it to reported speech (requested, ordered, etc.). We employ the verb 'told' when reporting a directive or order. We use the words 'asked/requested' when reporting a request.

Option A: Sam asked Sue what shall we do and Sue replied that we can go to cinema.
We must employ the past tense form of the verb in reported speech. The present tense is employed in direct speech. When we utilise reported speech, 'am' becomes 'was,' as you can see in the above statement. So, here “can” should have changed to past tense to form indirect speech. Hence, this option is incorrect.

Option B: Sam asked Sue what shall they do and Sue replied that they can go to cinema.
To convert the direct speech to indirect speech, Present tense of the sentence should change to past tense, but here when sue replied in present tense. Hence, this option is incorrect.

Option C: Sam asked Sue what should they do to which Sue replied that they could go to cinema.
For converting direct speech to indirect speech. All inverted commas and quote marks should be removed. Put a full stop at the end of the sentence. Change the present tense of the verb inside the inverted commas/quotation marks to the equivalent past tense. So, here Question is framed wrongly.
Hence, this option is incorrect.

Option D: Sam asked Sue what they should do to which Sue replied that they could go to cinema.
if/whether it is used, ‘we’ is changed to ‘they’ when converting a direct question to indirect speech that does not begin with a question phrase. In addition, the dialogues are linked to ‘which’, and ‘can’ is replaced with ‘could’.Hence, this option is correct.

Therefore, Option ‘D’ i.e, Sam asked Sue what they should do to which Sue replied that they could go to cinema is the correct answer. Since it is in a reporting speech or indirect speech.

Note: Indirect speech quotes have little impact on reading times. There was also no impact of movement speed on reading times. As a result, it appears that using direct speech activates the speaker's voice in the reader's mind rather than using indirect speech.