Choose the correct direct speech of the given sentence from the options that…
2022
Choose the correct direct speech of the given sentence from the options that follow:
She says that Tom is a doctor.
- A.
She said, "Tom is a doctor."
- B.
She says, "Tom was a doctor."
- C.
She says, "Tom is a doctor."
- D.
She said, "Tom was a doctor."
Attempted by 9 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept: When converting between direct and indirect speech, whether the reported clause's tense shifts back ("backshifts") depends entirely on the tense of the reporting verb: a past-tense reporting verb (said, told) usually backshifts the tense inside the quotation marks, but a present-tense (or future-tense) reporting verb (says, tells) requires no backshift at all -- the reporting verb and the tense inside the quotation marks both stay exactly as they were.
Application: Here the reporting verb in the indirect sentence is "says", which is present tense. So converting back to direct speech must keep "says" as is and must keep the tense inside the quotation marks -- "is" -- unchanged as well, giving: She says, "Tom is a doctor."
Why the other options fail:
"She said, 'Tom is a doctor.'" wrongly turns the present-tense reporting verb "says" into the past-tense "said", even though nothing in the sentence calls for that shift.
"She says, 'Tom was a doctor.'" keeps "says" correctly but wrongly shifts the tense inside the quotation marks to "was", which only happens when the reporting verb itself is past tense.
"She said, 'Tom was a doctor.'" makes both mistakes at once -- it changes the reporting verb to past tense and backshifts the quoted clause, neither of which the present-tense original calls for.
Because "says" is present tense, no backshift applies anywhere in the sentence, so the direct-speech form must keep every tense exactly as in the original: She says, "Tom is a doctor."