A sentence is provided in direct speech. From the four given options, choose the one that most accurately conveys the sentence in its corresponding indirect speech. He asked me, “Have you done your homework?”
- (a)He asked me if I had done my homework.
- (b)He asked me have I done my homework.
- (c)He asked me whether I have done my homework.
- (d)He asked me whether had I done my homework.
Answer
Why
Correct — A. 'Have you done…?' opens with an auxiliary, so it is a yes/no question. Reported, it is introduced by if or whether, with no question mark.
The reporting verb asked is past, so the present perfect 'have done' moves back to the past perfect had done.
A reported question takes statement order — I had done, not 'had I done' — and 'you/your' become 'I/my' because the person asked is the reporter → option (a).
Why the others are wrong
- (b)He asked me have I done my homework. — Keeps the question order 'have I done' and the unshifted tense, with no if or whether to introduce the reported question. It is direct speech with the quotation marks removed.
- (c)He asked me whether I have done my homework. — Whether is fine, and so is the word order. The miss is the tense: after the past verb asked, 'have done' shifts back to had done.
- (d)He asked me whether had I done my homework. — The tense is shifted correctly, but had I done keeps the inverted question order. A reported question uses statement order: whether I had done.
Concept
Reporting a question changes three things. The connector: a yes/no question takes if or whether, a wh-question keeps its wh-word.
The tense moves back one step after a past reporting verb — present perfect to past perfect, simple present to simple past.
The word order becomes that of a statement, subject before verb, and the question mark goes. Pronouns follow the people: here the listener 'you' is the reporter, so 'you' becomes 'I'.
Everyday English sometimes leaves the tense unshifted when the situation is still true at the moment of reporting. Nothing in this sentence signals that, and the key takes the regular backshift that the past verb asked triggers.
Key facts
- A reported yes/no question is introduced by if or whether.
- After a past reporting verb, the present perfect (have done) becomes the past perfect (had done).
- Reported questions use statement word order and drop the question mark.
Study next
Common traps
- Keeping the question order after if or whether — 'whether had I done' is still a direct question.
- Changing the pronouns but not the tense, which is exactly the gap between 'whether I have done' and 'if I had done'.
The reverse conversion, indirect to direct, follows at English Q.23 of this shift, where the reported 'would' has to be turned back into 'will'.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.