Direct and Indirect Speech — MCQs with Answers (Set 1)

Past continuous shifts to past perfect continuous, while the simple past clause stays simple past.

‘Will’ shifts to ‘would’ and ‘tomorrow’ becomes ‘the next day’ in reported speech.

‘Can’ shifts to ‘could’ in reported questions, introduced by ‘if’, not ‘that’.

Present perfect shifts to past perfect in reported speech; the word order of ‘never’ stays the same.

A negative instruction is reported as ‘told…not to’ plus the base verb form.

Simple present negative shifts to simple past negative in reported speech.

Present continuous shifts to past continuous when the reporting verb is in the past tense.

‘Shall’ shifts to ‘would’ in reported speech, and ‘tomorrow’ becomes ‘the next day’.

Simple past becomes past perfect, and both ‘this’ and ‘yesterday’ shift away from the original context.

A reported command converts back to a direct imperative sentence, with the reporting verb as ‘said to’.

The reported wh-question uses statement word order and a backshifted tense, without ‘that’.

The possessive pronoun ‘my’ shifts to match the speaker: since Farah is female, it becomes ‘her’.

‘Should’ does not change form when it already expresses advice; only the pronoun shifts here.

In a reported wh-question, subject-verb order is restored and the tense is backshifted.

Present perfect shifts to past perfect in reported speech; the specific year 2015 itself does not change.

Negative commands report with ‘told…not to’ plus the base verb.

Simple past shifts to past perfect, and ‘last week’ becomes ‘the previous week’ in reported speech.

Obligation ‘must’ commonly shifts to ‘had to’ in reported speech.

‘Can’ shifts to ‘could’, and both ‘this’ and ‘today’ change to ‘that’ and ‘that day’.

‘Let’s’ suggestions report with ‘suggested that’ and the base form of the verb, not the past tense.

A polite request reports with ‘requested’ followed by a to-infinitive, and ‘this’ becomes ‘that’.

A command in reported speech uses ‘told’ plus a to-infinitive, not ‘that’ or a gerund.

Yes/no questions are reported with ‘if’ or ‘whether’, not ‘that’, and the verb is backshifted.

In reported questions, word order becomes statement order (no auxiliary inversion) and ‘that’ is not used.

Universal truths keep their original tense even in reported speech; the tense is not backshifted.

‘Will’ shifts to ‘would’, and ‘tomorrow’ becomes ‘the next day’ when reporting speech.

Present continuous shifts to past continuous, and ‘now’ becomes ‘then’ in reported speech.