Tech Mahindra Speech and Voice Quiz 1

Sanya said that she was having difficulty catching up with her soccer practice

Here, the sentence in direct speech is in present continuous tense, which changes to past continuous tense when translating into indirect speech.

Since it is just a speech from the speaker, we do not use ‘complained’ but ‘said’ as the reporting verb.

Altering pronouns - ‘I’ changes to ‘she’ and my changes to ‘her’.

The priest said that it is hard to live without love and sacrifice

While translating to indirect speech, the tense remains the same if the direct sentence talks about any universal fact. Here the priest gives a sermon and talks about a universal fact, hence the tense of the sentence remains in the simple present tense itself.

The reported verb, however, also does not change and will not be ‘says’ or ‘has said’.

The trainer said that he had been teaching them music all day

When converting from direct to indirect speech, Present Perfect Continuous Changes to Past Perfect Continuous.

So, ‘I have been’ changes to ‘he had been’.

Pronoun alteration - ‘I’ changes to ‘he’

John told me that he had been waiting for the delivery boy at the gate
When converting from direct to indirect speech, Present Perfect Continuous Changes to Past Perfect Continuous.

So, ‘I have been ’ changes to ‘he had been’.

Pronoun alteration - ‘I’ changes to ‘he’.

Samiksha said, “I will be applying for the integrated personality development program tomorrow”

When converting from direct to indirect speech, Future Continuous Changes to Conditional Continuous.So, ‘would be’ changes to ‘will be’. And the continuous form remains the same.The next day in indirect speech changes to ‘tomorrow’ in direct speech. It is the rule of time conversions

Anjali asked if I was a part of the selection committee the previous year

If a direct speech sentence begins with an auxiliary verb/helping verb, it takes the form of if / whether in the indirect clause.

Here, ‘were you’ changes to ‘If I were’. In a conditional sentence that includes the ‘if-clause’ we use ‘I were, instead of ‘I was’.

The term ‘last year’ changes to ‘the previous year’ in indirect speech.

The instructor said that he might inspect the production site the following day for further investigation

In the process of translating direct to indirect speech, the modals change too. Here, may will change ‘might’.
Pronoun alters - ‘I’ changes to ‘he.’
Time verb changes - tomorrow changes to the next day / the following day. ‘This’ changes to ‘that’.
Insertion of conjunction ‘that’ after said is mandatory and insertion of ‘the’ before next / following day is necessary.

The Delhi police forbade us to be involved in any criminal activities that day or we would have to face the consequences.
In Indirect Speech, we use some supportive verbs like requested, ordered, suggested and advised. We use forbid/forbade in negative sentences. Thus, the imperative in direct speech changes to infinitive (to) in indirect speech.
The same is the case in the sentence above. Since the tone of the sentence is a warning, we use the verb ‘forbade’ presenting a past tense form.
‘Do not be involved’ changes to ‘forbade us to be involved’.
Today changes to that day. Modal verbs such as Could, Would, Should, Might, Ought to, do ot change their form in indirect conversion.

My cousin brother exclaimed that that laptop was amazing
In a sentence that converts an exclamatory sentence from direct to indirect, the expression of exclamation in the direct speech takes the form of a reported verb in the indirect speech. So it become ‘The cousin brother exclaimed’
The conjunction ‘that’ is added after the reported verb.
This changes to ‘that’, hence we have used ‘that’ twice. Once it acts as a conjunction and the second time it acts as the demonstrative noun.
Present tense changes to past tense, so, ‘is’ changes to ‘was’.

She asked me if she might take that umbrella of mine and I replied yes, she could.
In an interrogative sentence, the reported verb used is mostly ‘asked’ which is followed by the conjunction ‘if / whether’. Next, with modal verbs ‘may and can’ they change to ‘might and could’.
‘I’ changes to ‘she’, and ‘yours’ changes to ‘mine’.
This umbrella changes to that umbrella.
Since the second speech was a reply or an answer to the question, we use the reported verb ‘replied’.