Select the most appropriate indirect form of the given sentence.
“What sort of a house are you looking for, Mr. Barrington?” said the house agent.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The most appropriate indirect form of the given sentence is:
The house agent asked Mr. Barrington what sort of a house he was looking for.
The other answer choices are incorrect for the following reasons:
- The house agent wanted to know what sort of a house was Mr. Barrington looking for. - This is incorrect because the verb "was" in the reported speech is in the past tense, but the reporting verb "said" is in the past tense.
- The house agent asked Mr. Barrington what sort of a house would he be looking for. - This is incorrect because the modal verb "would" in the reported speech is used to express possibility or speculation, but the original sentence is a simple question about what sort of house Mr. Barrington is looking for.
- The house agent asked Mr. Barrington what sort of a house are you looking for. - This is incorrect because the pronoun "you" in the reported speech refers to the speaker, which is the house agent.