Suresh said, "I did it yesterday." Which one of the following options is the correct form of this sentence in indirect speech?
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When the reporting verb is in the past tense ("said"), the verb inside the reported clause shifts one tense back, the speaker's pronoun changes to match who is being talked about, and time words like "yesterday" change to phrases like "the day before".
This question checks the rules for turning direct speech into indirect (reported) speech. The direct sentence is Suresh said, "I did it yesterday." We need to change the reporting verb, the tense inside the quote, the pronoun, and the time word correctly, then match the result to one of the four options.
Suresh said that I did it yesterday: This keeps "I" and "yesterday" exactly as in the direct speech. In reported speech the pronoun must switch to match who is being talked about, and "yesterday" cannot stay as is once we are speaking from a later point in time. This option skips both changes, so it is wrong.
Suresh says I did it yesterday: This uses "says", a present tense reporting verb, but the passage clearly tells us Suresh "said" it in the past. It also fails to change the pronoun and the time word. Wrong for three separate reasons.
Suresh says that he did it the day before: The pronoun and the time phrase are handled correctly here, "he" and "the day before". But the reporting verb "says" is wrong, and because a past reporting verb needs backshift, "did" should have moved to "had done", not stayed as simple past. Wrong.
Suresh said that he had done it the day before: The reporting verb "said" is kept as is, the reported verb backshifts from simple past "did" to past perfect "had done", "I" becomes "he", and "yesterday" becomes "the day before". Every rule is applied correctly.
The correct option is "Suresh said that he had done it the day before," because it is the only sentence that applies backshift of tense, the pronoun change, and the time word change together, exactly as the rules of reported speech require.
Let's summarize:
A past tense reporting verb like "said" pushes the reported verb one step further into the past (simple past to past perfect).
Pronouns in the reported clause must match the person actually being talked about, so "I" becomes "he" when Suresh is being reported.
Time words tied to "now" change too: "yesterday" becomes "the day before" once the sentence is reported from a different point in time.
So the correct indirect speech version is "Suresh said that he had done it the day before."
