Practicing Success

Target Exam

CUET

Subject

English

Chapter

Direct/indirect

Question:

Select the correct indirect form of the given sentence.

He said to me, "What are you doing?"

Options:

He said that what I was doing.

He said what I had been doing.

He asked me what I was doing.

He asked me that what was I doing.

Correct Answer:

He asked me what I was doing.

Explanation:

The correct indirect form of the given sentence is:

He asked me what I was doing.

The other options are incorrect:

  • He said that what I was doing. - This is incorrect because the reporting verb "said" does not indicate that the speaker was posing a question.
  • He said what I had been doing. - This is incorrect because the verb "had been doing" in the reported speech suggests that the speaker was asking about an activity that the person being spoken to had been engaged in prior to the conversation, but the original sentence is about what the person being spoken to is doing at the present moment.
  • He asked me that what was I doing. - This is incorrect because the word order in the reported speech is incorrect. The correct word order would be "what I was doing".