Select the correct indirect form of the given sentence.
I said to my mother, “I will certainly take you to Bangalore this week.”
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → I told my mother that I would certainly take her to Bangalore that week.
Reporting your own promise:
| Change | Direct | Indirect | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reporting verb | said to my mother | told my mother | A listener is named. So "said to" becomes "told". |
| Joining word | " " (quotation marks) | that | The reported statement is joined with "that". |
| Pronoun change | you | her | I was speaking to my mother, so "you" becomes "her". "I" stays "I", as I am reporting my own words. |
| Tense change | will | would | "Will" changes to "would" (would + base form (V1)) after the past "said". |
| Time and place words | this week | that week | The report comes later. So "this" changes to "that". |
| Full sentence | I said to my mother, "I will certainly take you to Bangalore this week." | I told my mother that I would certainly take her to Bangalore that week. |
Other time words change the same way: today → that day, now → then, tonight → that night. Example: Gopal said, "I will finish it today." → Gopal said that he would finish it that day.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: I told my mother that she would certainly take her to Bangalore that week. — Incorrect. The promise is mine. "She would take" wrongly makes the mother the one who takes.
Option 2: I told my mother he would certainly take her to Bangalore that week. — Incorrect. "He" brings in some other person. The one who will take her is "I".
Option 3: I told my mother that I would certainly take her to Bangalore this week. — Incorrect. "This week" is not changed. In the report it becomes "that week".