Select the correct indirect form of the given sentence.
Vishnu said, "I am going to the theater this evening."
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct indirect form of the sentence "Vishnu said, 'I am going to the theater this evening.'" is:
Vishnu said that he was going to the theater that evening.
When changing from direct speech to indirect speech, there are a few rules that must be followed. One of these rules is that the tense of the reported speech must be changed to the past tense. In this case, the direct speech is in the present tense ("I am going"), so the indirect speech must be in the past tense ("he was going").
The other options are incorrect because they use the wrong tense.
- Vishnu said that I am going to the theater this evening. This is in the present tense, which is incorrect for a statement that was made in the past.
- Vishnu said that he would go to the theater that evening. This is in the future tense, which is also incorrect for a statement that was made in the past.
- Vishnu said that he was going to the theater this evening. This is incorrect because it uses the adverb "this" instead of "that". The adverb "this" refers to the present time, while the adverb "that" refers to the past time.