In the following question, a sentence is given in Direct/Indirect speech. Out of the four alternatives choose the one which best expresses the sentence in Indirect/Direct Speech.  Krishna said to his disciple, "I will be grateful if you complete this task by morning." 

In the following question, a sentence is given in Direct/Indirect speech. Out of the four alternatives choose the one which best expresses the sentence in Indirect/Direct Speech.  Krishna said to his disciple, "I will be grateful if you complete this task by morning."  Correct Answer Krishna told his disciple that he would be grateful if he completed that task by morning.

The correct answer is Option 1) i.e. Krishna told his disciple that he would be grateful if he completed that task by morning.

Key Points

The reported speech is an example of an Assertive sentence, in such sentences 'said to' changes into 'told'. 

• 'Tell' is a transitive verb i.e. it has to have a direct object.
• Therefore 'Told' cannot be used alone, it too has to be used with an object. Thus we write "Krishna told his disciple".
• The inverted commas are removed and 'that' is used before the start of the speech.
• The pronoun changes such that the 'first-person' is the subject and it changes according to the 'second person' i.e. the object.
  • here 'I' will change according to the subject 'Krishna' and will become 'he'.
  • 'you' changes to 'he' according to the object 'the disciple'.
• 'this project' changes to 'that project' and the tense of the verb of the reported speech 'complete' changes to simple past tense i.e. 'completed'.

Correct answer: 'Krishna told his disciple that he would be grateful if he completed that task by morning.'