Choose the correct sentence in indirect speech for the following sentence:
She said to me, "When I met him, he was playing in the park."
A. She told me that when she met him he was playing in the park.
B. She narrated to me that he has been playing in the park when she met him.
C. She asked me to see him in the park where he was playing.
D. She told me that he had been playing in the park when she had met him.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → A and D only
| Direct | Indirect |
|---|---|
| She said to me, "When I met him, he was playing in the park." | She told me that when she had met him he had been playing in the park. |
Statement in indirect speech:
- Reporting verb: "said to me" becomes told me, and that joins the reported statement.
- Tense change: with a past reporting verb, the simple past "met" moves back to had met and the past continuous "was playing" to had been playing. When a time clause with "when" already makes the order of two past events clear, these past tenses may also be kept unchanged.
- Pronoun changes: "I" → she; "him" stays "him".
Example: He said to me, "I lost my pen." → He told me that he had lost his pen.
(A) She told me that when she met him he was playing in the park. — Correct. "Told me that" and the pronoun "she" are right; the past tenses are kept, which is acceptable because "when" already shows the order of the two past events.
(B) She narrated to me that he has been playing in the park when she met him. — Incorrect. The present perfect continuous "has been playing" cannot report a finished past event after a past reporting verb, and "narrated to me" is not the usual reporting verb for a single statement.
Correct form: She told me that he had been playing in the park when she had met him.
(C) She asked me to see him in the park where he was playing. — Incorrect. It turns a statement into a request ("asked me to see him") and changes the meaning completely.
Correct form: She told me that when she had met him he had been playing in the park.
(D) She told me that he had been playing in the park when she had met him. — Correct. Every past tense is moved back: "met" → had met, "was playing" → had been playing. This is the fully back-shifted form.