The teacher asked the little boy if he_ the correct answer to the question.
Correct answer: D. Knew
- A. Knows
- B. Know
- C. Known
- D. Knew
Explanation
In reported speech, the tense of the original present verb "knows" changes to past tense ("knew") because the reporting verb "asked" is in the past. So the sentence becomes: "The teacher asked the little boy if he knew the correct answer to the question."
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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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