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in the following questions, a sentence has been given in Direct / Indirect Speech. Out of the four alternatives suggested, select the one which best expresses the same sentence in Indirect/Direct Speech.

Ques - He said, "Ravi, why are you sounding so depressed today?"

  1. He asked Ravi why did he sound so depressed that day.

  2. He asked Ravi why he was sounding so depressed that day.

  3. He told Ravi why he sounded so depressed today.

  4. He asked Ravi that why was he sounding so depressed that day

This is something I came across while studying for competitve exams.

My answer - He asked Ravi why did he sound so depressed that day.

Correct answer - He asked Ravi why he was sounding so depressed that day.

So far I've read that in order to change the speech from direct to indirect that we should change the present tense to past tense. Then why was 2. correct and not 1.

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  • Both your answer (1) and the “Correct answer” (4) are wrong because indirect questions do not invert subject with verb. Also, they ought not to end with a question mark.
    – Anton Sherwood
    Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 2:26
  • @AntonSherwood You are right. I mentioned the correct number in the end. However, It was my mistake to write incorrect sentences. I have fixed it now.
    – Manny
    Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 4:08

1 Answer 1

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He said, "Ravi, Why are you sounding so depressed today"?

you are correct in saying that present changes into past tense.

But the direct speech is in the present continuous.So it should be changed into its corresponding past tense which is past continuous.

The correct answer is:

He asked Ravi why he was sounding so depressed that day.

Your answer is in the simple past. So it was wrong.

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