Question

Out of the given options, choose the one which is the correct indirect speech of the sentence given below.

The Prince said, “It gives me great pleasure to be here this evening.”

1. The Prince said that it gave him great pleasure to be here that evening.
2. The Prince said that it gives him great pleasure to be here that evening.
3. The Prince said that it gives him great pleasure to be there that evening.
4. The Prince said that it gave him great pleasure to be there that evening.

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 4 : The Prince said that it gave him great pleasure to be there that evening.

The indirect speech of the given sentence is 'The Prince said that it gave him great pleasure to be there that evening. '

The Prince said,

"It gives me great pleasure to be here this evening."

      Reporting clause                                             Reported speech

• Let's look at the steps to change the sentence from direct to indirect speech:
• When the direct speech is in an assertive form, we follow the steps given below:
  • Convert the sentence in the direct speech into assertive.
  • The tense of reported speech is changed only when the reporting verb is in the past tense. 
  • The reporting verb said will remain the same.
  • The connector 'that' will follow the removal of comma and inverted commas.
  • The personal pronouns will be changed according to the subject and object of the reporting verb.
  • ​Here the pronoun 'me' will change into the pronoun 'him' as per the subject.
  • The present simple tense i.e. bought will be changed to the past simple tense i.e. gave.
  • Words showing time and place are changed accordingly. (here- there) & (this - that)
• ​​​At last line up the remaining part.
   

Following these steps, we get- The Prince said that it gave him great pleasure to be there that evening.