He said, "What is the matter"?[Choose the correct indirect speech:]
Correct answer: B. He asked what the matter was.
- A. He said what the matter was.
- B. He asked what the matter was.
- C. He enquired that what was the matter.
- D. He asked that what the matter had been.
Explanation
Indirect speech is a grammatical mechanism for reporting the content without directly speaking it. When the reporting verb is in the past and the direct speech is in the simple present tense, then the indirect speech will change into the past indefinite tense.
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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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