Choose the correct form: He said that he ____ to Lahore the previous week.
Correct answer: C. had gone
- A. goes
- B. has gone
- C. had gone
- D. will go
Explanation
Reported speech shifts the tense one step back, so a past simple in the original becomes the past perfect, and the phrase the previous week confirms the earlier time. Keeping the present tense would only be correct if the reporting verb were present. This backshift is one of the most frequently tested rules in entry tests.
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About Direct and Indirect Speech
Direct speech gives a speaker’s exact words, whereas indirect speech reports the meaning without quotation marks. Questions cover reporting verbs, pronoun changes, tense backshift, time and place expressions, punctuation, and the transformation of questions, commands and requests, including cases where backshift is not required.
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