SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 12 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 22 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

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. She said, “I saw him last night.”

(a)She said she had seen him the previous night.
(b)She said she has seen him last night.
(c)She said she was seeing him last night.
(d)She said she had saw him the previous night.

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The reporting verb said is past, so three things change in the quote:

I → she (she is reporting her own words)
saw, simple past → had seen, past perfect
last night → the previous night

Put together: She said she had seen him the previous night → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
She said she has seen him last night. — Has seen is present perfect, left unshifted after the past verb said. The present perfect also cannot sit with a finished time such as last night.
(c)
She said she was seeing him last night. — Was seeing turns one completed sighting into an action in progress, which changes the meaning. It also leaves last night unconverted.
(d)
She said she had saw him the previous night. — Had saw is not a verb form. Had must be followed by the past participle, seen, and saw is the simple past.

Concept

When the reporting verb is past (said), the reported clause normally backshifts one tense: present becomes past, and simple past or present perfect becomes past perfect.

Time words move with it, because last night is measured from the moment of speaking: last night → the previous night, yesterday → the previous day, tomorrow → the next day.

Pronouns follow the speaker, so her I becomes she.

In everyday English the simple past may be left unchanged when the order of events is clear: She said she saw him the previous night. That version is not among the options, and each of the other three changes the verb into a faulty form.

Key facts

After a past reporting verb, simple past backshifts to past perfect: saw → had seen.
Last night becomes the previous night, or the night before.
Had is followed by the past participle: had seen, not had saw.
The present perfect does not combine with a finished past time such as last night.

Study next

The backshift table: present → past, past → past perfect, will → wouldTime and place words in reported speech: yesterday, tomorrow, here, nowPast participles of irregular verbs: see, saw, seen and go, went, gone

Common traps

Changing the tense but forgetting the time word, which must also shift
Choosing had saw because it looks backshifted, when had needs the participle seen

The same backshift is keyed at 15 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.24: He said, "I bought a new laptop." becomes He said that he had bought a new laptop.

At 17 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.23 the present perfect makes the same move: have seen → had seen.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Narration — all 65 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.