Identify the correct transformation of the direct sentence: "She ...
In transforming the given sentence into indirect speech, 'had never seen' remains 'had never seen' to maintain the past perfect tense. Hence, the correct indirect speech is "She said she had never seen such a beautiful sunset before."
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Identify the correct transformation of the direct sentence: "She ...
Transformation of Direct Speech to Indirect Speech
In this question, we are asked to identify the correct transformation of the direct sentence: "She said, 'I had never seen such a beautiful sunset before.'"
To convert the direct speech into indirect speech, we need to follow certain rules. Let's break down the process step by step:
Step 1: Remove the quotation marks and the reporting verb "said."
"She said, 'I had never seen such a beautiful sunset before.'"
→ "I had never seen such a beautiful sunset before.'"
Step 2: Change the pronouns and verb tenses as necessary.
In this case, the pronoun "I" changes to "she" because we are reporting someone else's speech. Additionally, the past perfect tense "had never seen" changes to the past perfect tense "had never seen."
"I had never seen such a beautiful sunset before.'"
→ "She had never seen such a beautiful sunset before.'"
Step 3: Add a reporting verb and a conjunction if necessary.
Since the original sentence already contains a reporting verb ("said"), we do not need to add another one. However, we need to add a conjunction "that" to introduce the reported speech.
"She had never seen such a beautiful sunset before.'"
→ "She said that she had never seen such a beautiful sunset before."
Therefore, the correct transformation of the direct sentence "She said, 'I had never seen such a beautiful sunset before'" into indirect speech is option 'D': "She said she had never seen such a beautiful sunset before."
Key Points:
- When transforming direct speech to indirect speech, we remove the quotation marks and the reporting verb.
- Pronouns and verb tenses may change depending on the context.
- We may need to add a reporting verb and a conjunction, such as "that," to introduce the reported speech.