Multiple choice

Directions: Change the given direct sentence into an indirect sentence.

John said to me, ”Can you solve this problem?”

  1. John told me that he could solve that problem.

  2. John asked me if I could solve that problem.

  3. John asked to me if you could solved that problem.

  4. John asked me to solve that problem.

  5. None of these

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

In an indirect sentence the actual words of the speaker are transformed in a simple manner. The given sentence is in the form of a question. If the question is formed using helping verb, it is changed into simple statement using if. Helping verb is used after the subject(I) to change question format into simple statement. In this type of sentences, reporting verb is changed from ‘said to’ to ‘asked’. Moreover ‘can’ changes to ‘could’ and ‘this’ changes to ‘that’. The pronoun ‘you’ in the reported speech will be changed into ‘I’. Option 2 is correct, as it is following all the rules.

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