Maria: "I saw them leave the meeting early."a)Maria said she...
The given statement is reported speech, where Maria is reporting something that she saw. In reported speech, the tense of the verb may need to be changed depending on the context. Let's analyze the options:
Option A:- This option uses the present tense "sees," which is incorrect because Maria is reporting something she saw in the past.
- The verb tense needs to be changed to reflect the past event.
Option B:- This option uses the past continuous tense "was seeing," which is incorrect because Maria is not describing an ongoing action.
- The verb tense needs to be changed to reflect a completed action.
Option C:- This option uses the past perfect tense "had seen," which is incorrect because Maria is reporting something she saw in the past, not before another past event.
- The verb tense needs to be changed to reflect a past event without using the past perfect tense.
Correct Answer: C-
Maria said she'd seen them leave the meeting early.
- The verb tense "had seen" in the past perfect form correctly reflects the past event Maria witnessed.