Select the appropriate option as the conversion for the following statement into indirect speech.
- Fiona said, "It's getting late" -
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) - Fiona said that it was getting late.
In indirect speech, we typically change the tense of the verb and structure the sentence to remove the quotation marks. Here’s how it works for the given sentence:
- Direct Speech: Fiona said, "It's getting late"
- Indirect Speech: Fiona said that it was getting late.
-
"Fiona said it meant to be late."
- This changes the meaning and is not a correct transformation.
-
"Fiona said it had been late."
- This incorrectly shifts the tense to past perfect and alters the original meaning.
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"Fiona said it has been getting late."
- This uses present perfect, which is not appropriate for this context.