He asked me why_ too often when I knew there would be fewer buses on the road that day.
Correct answer: C. I had
- A. had I
- B. I have
- C. I had
- D. have I
Explanation
In reported speech, questions are changed to statement word order. The original past tense question "Why had I...?" becomes "why I had..." in reported speech.
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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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