Choose the most appropriate reported construction of the following sentence:
The fire officer said to the crowd, “Move back and keep the lane clear for my fire engine.”
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → The fire officer ordered the crowd to move back and keep the lane clear for his fire engine.
Changing an order into indirect speech:
| Change | Direct | Indirect | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reporting verb | said to the crowd | ordered the crowd | The spoken words are an order, so “said to” becomes “ordered”. The person comes straight after “ordered”, with no “to”. |
| To + verb | Move ... keep | to move ... keep | The commands “Move” and “keep” become “to move ... and keep”. One “to” serves both verbs joined by “and”. |
| Pronoun change | my | his | The speaker is the fire officer, so “my fire engine” becomes “his fire engine”. |
| Full sentence | The fire officer said to the crowd, “Move back and keep the lane clear for my fire engine.” | The fire officer ordered the crowd to move back and keep the lane clear for his fire engine. |
“Commanded” is used in the same way, and a negative order takes “not to”. Example: The captain said to the soldiers, “Do not fire.” → The captain commanded the soldiers not to fire.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: The fire officer ordered to the crowd to move back and keep the lane clear for his fire engine. — Incorrect. “Ordered to the crowd” is wrong. “Ordered” takes the person straight after it: “ordered the crowd”.
Option 2: The fire officer ordered the crowd to move back and keep the lane clear for my fire engine. — Incorrect. “My” is not changed. The fire officer speaks of his own engine, so it must be “his”.
Option 3: The fire officer ordered the crowd that they moved back and kept the lane clear for his fire engine. — Incorrect. “That they moved” turns the order into a statement about the past. An order is reported with “to” + verb: “to move”.