Choose the correct option which best expresses the same sentence in Indirect/Direct speech.
She said that she really liked the furniture.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → "I really like this furniture," she said.
Indirect to direct speech:
| Change | Indirect | Direct | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tense change | liked | like | The reporting verb “said” is past, so the reported verb was backshifted. In direct speech it returns to the tense the speaker used: liked becomes like. |
| Pronoun change | she | I | “She” (the speaker) becomes “I”. |
| Words of nearness (time and place) | the | this | The furniture is before the speaker, so “the” becomes “this”. |
| Reporting verb | said that | “...,” she said | “Said” stays. “That” is dropped, the words go inside inverted commas, and the adverb keeps its place: “really like”. |
| Full sentence | She said that she really liked the furniture. | “I really like this furniture,” she said. |
Example: He said that he was hungry. → “I am hungry,” he said.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: "She really liked this furniture," she said. — Incorrect. Inside the inverted commas the speaker must say "I", and the tense must go back to the present "like".
Option 2: "She liked really this furniture," she said. — Incorrect.
- The pronoun and the tense are not changed back.
- "liked really" puts the adverb in the wrong place. "Really" goes before the verb.
Option 4: "I have really liked this furniture," she said. — Incorrect. The present perfect "have liked" is not the tense behind "liked". A present feeling is expressed by the simple present "like".