Change the following sentence into indirect speech :
She said, "My brother has gone out".
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → She said that her brother had gone out.
Statement in indirect speech:
| Change | Direct | Indirect | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reporting verb | said, “ | said that | “Said” stays, and the inverted commas give way to “that”. |
| Pronoun change | My | her | “My” becomes “her”, to match the speaker “she”. |
| Tense change | has gone | had gone | The reporting verb is in the past, so the present perfect “has gone” moves back to the past perfect “had gone”. |
| Full sentence | She said, “My brother has gone out”. | She said that her brother had gone out. |
Example: He said, “I have finished my work.” → He said that he had finished his work.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: She said her brother is out. — Incorrect. The tense is not moved back, and "is out" changes the verb "has gone out".
Option 2: Her brother went out, she said. — Incorrect. It is not proper indirect speech: the reporting clause is tacked on at the end without "that", and the simple past "went" replaces "had gone".
Option 4: Her brother went to market. — Incorrect. It leaves out the speaker and adds "to market", which she never said.