Select the correct indirect form of the given sentence.
Isha said to her brother, “Didn’t you charge my power bank yesterday? It is completely dead now.”
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Isha asked her brother whether he had not charged her power bank the day before and said that it was completely dead then.
Changing a negative question and a statement into indirect speech:
| Change | Direct | Indirect | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reporting verb | said to her brother | asked her brother ... and said | The first part is a question, so “said to” becomes “asked”. The second part is a statement, so it is brought in with “and said”. |
| Joining word | “ ” (quotation marks) | whether ... that | “Didn’t you charge ...?” is answered with yes or no, so “whether” joins it. “That” joins the statement. |
| Word order | Didn’t you charge | he had not charged | The question becomes a plain statement. The subject “he” comes first, and “not” stays after “had”. |
| Tense change | didn’t ... charge, is | had not charged, was | “Didn’t ... charge” is in the simple past. The simple past is formed with the past form of the verb (V2). After the past “said” it becomes the past perfect “had not charged”. The past perfect is formed with had + past participle (V3). “Is” is in the simple present. The verb “be” in the simple present is am / is / are. It becomes the simple past “was”. |
| Pronoun change | you, my | he, her | Her brother is spoken to, so “you” becomes “he”. Isha is the speaker, so “my” becomes “her”. |
| Time words | yesterday, now | the day before, then | The words are reported later. So “yesterday” becomes “the day before” and “now” becomes “then”. A power bank is “dead” when no charge is left in it. |
| Full sentence | Isha said to her brother, “Didn’t you charge my power bank yesterday? It is completely dead now.” | Isha asked her brother whether he had not charged her power bank the day before and said that it was completely dead then. |
A negative question in the present keeps “not” in the same way, and the tense moves one step back. Example: Dev said to me, “Aren’t you hungry?” → Dev asked me whether I was not hungry.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: Isha asked her brother whether hadn’t he charged her power bank the day before and said that it was completely dead then. — Incorrect. “Hadn’t he charged” keeps the question word order. In indirect speech the subject comes first: “whether he had not charged”.
Option 3: Isha asked her brother whether he had not charged her power bank yesterday and said that it was completely dead then. — Incorrect. “Yesterday” is left unchanged. In the report it becomes “the day before”.
Option 4: Isha asked her brother whether he had not charged his power bank the day before and said that it was completely dead then. — Incorrect. “His” is the wrong pronoun. The power bank is Isha’s, so her “my” becomes “her”.