NDA (I) 2025 General Ability Test · Question 6 of 150

Correct — A, Charu told her friend that she wanted her to be there at 6.00 p.m. the next day for the meeting. Reporting in the past needs three shifts: the verb 'want' becomes 'wanted', the place word 'here' becomes 'there', and the time word 'tomorrow' becomes 'the next day'. Only (a) makes all three.

• (b)Charu told her friend that she wanted her to be there at 6.00 p.m. tomorrow for the meeting — Keeps the direct-speech time word 'tomorrow'; in reported speech it must become 'the next day'.
• (c)Charu requested her friend that she wanted her to be there at 6.00 p.m. tomorrow for the meeting — 'requested... that she wanted' is unidiomatic, and it also keeps 'tomorrow' unchanged.
• (d)Charu told her friend that she will want her to be here at 6.00 p.m. the next day for the meeting — Uses 'will want' with no back-shift and keeps 'here' instead of 'there'.

Direct-to-indirect conversion back-shifts the tense and changes the deictic words, so 'here' becomes 'there' and 'tomorrow' becomes 'the next day'.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Report: Ravi said to me, 'I will meet you here tomorrow.'

  • (a)Ravi told me that he would meet me there the next day
  • (b)Ravi told me that he will meet me here tomorrow
  • (c)Ravi told me that he would meet me here the next day
  • (d)Ravi told me that he will meet me there tomorrow

  Answer(a) ...there the next day — 'will' becomes 'would', 'here' becomes 'there', 'tomorrow' becomes 'the next day'.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In reported speech, 'now' usually changes to —

  • (a)then
  • (b)here
  • (c)today
  • (d)soon

  Answer(a) then — the time word 'now' back-shifts to 'then'.