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I have this sentence:

  • He said to the interviewer, "Could you please repeat the question?"

Which one of the following is better as its indirect speech?

He requested the interviewer to repeat the question.

Or

He requested the interviewer if he could repeat the question.

2 Answers 2

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Well, the correct are:

  1. He asked the interviewer if he could please repeat the question.
  2. He asked the interviewer if he could kindly repeat the question.

You can't use "to" here since the sentence in direct speech is not an imperative sentence.

You can study the conversion routing and rules here: Direct and Indirect Speech

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  • 1. She said to her friend, Could you please lend me some money?
    – starun008
    Jan 3, 2018 at 16:24
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I also find this question confusing. This one came across me many times. For me correct answer should be : 1. He asked the interviewer if he could please repeat the question.

I think you are preparing for SSC CGL or IBPS. Most of the books have given the answer "He requested the interviewer if he could repeat the question", as mentioned by you. But this is incorrect. We can't use "request" here.

  1. He requested the interviewer to repeat the question.

Original question is not an imperative one. So use of "to" is not correct here.

................................................................................

In Object general english by SP Bakshi, you can find a question with same structure. 1. She said to her friend,"could/would you please lend me some money?"

Answer : She requested her friend to lend her some money.

This answer is given in Book. But I doubt if it's correct.

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