Select the option that expresses the given sentence in indirect speech.
He said, “It’s been raining since last night.”
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct option is OPTION 2 He said that it had been raining since the night before.
In indirect speech, the tense of the reported speech is changed to the past tense. The present perfect continuous tense "It's been raining since last night" is changed to the past perfect continuous tense "It had been raining since the night before".
The other options are incorrect because:
- "He said that it had rained since last night" uses the simple past tense, which is not correct for the reported speech of a present perfect continuous tense sentence.
- "He’s said that it had been raining since yesterday" uses the present perfect tense, which is not correct for a reported speech of a sentence that happened in the past.
- "He said that it’s raining since last night" is a statement about the present, but the original sentence was about the past.