SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 22 of 95

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 had completed the report.”

(a)She said that she completed the report.
(b)She said that she has completed the report.
(c)She said that she had completed the report.
(d)She said she had been completing the report.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The reporting verb said is past, so each tense inside the quote moves one step back.

The quoted verb is had completed, past perfect. Past perfect has no further step back, so it stays past perfect.

The pronoun shifts from I to she, and 'that' joins the clause: She said that she had completed the report → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
She said that she completed the report. — Completed, simple past, moves the tense forward instead of keeping it, and loses the 'earlier past' meaning that 'had completed' carries in her own words.
(b)
She said that she has completed the report. — Has completed is present perfect after the past verb said. Backshift moves tenses back; it never turns a past perfect into a present perfect.
(d)
She said she had been completing the report. — Had been completing is past perfect continuous, an action in progress. Her words describe a finished action, and reporting shifts the time back without changing simple to continuous.

Concept

In reported speech after a past reporting verb, tenses backshift one step: present → past, past → past perfect, present perfect → past perfect.

The past perfect is the end of that chain. Simple past, present perfect and past perfect in the original all arrive at past perfect in the report.

The form of the action stays the same: a simple form stays simple and a continuous form stays continuous. Only the time moves back.

The last option drops 'that' after said. Leaving out 'that' is optional in English and is not what rules that option out; the tense is.

Key facts

Past perfect in direct speech stays past perfect in indirect speech.
After a past reporting verb, simple past and present perfect both become past perfect: 'I bought' → 'he had bought', 'I have seen' → 'he had seen'.
A continuous form stays continuous when reported: 'is completing' → 'was completing'.
First-person I becomes she or he to match the speaker.

Study next

Backshift of the simple past: 'I bought' → 'had bought'Time words in narration: last night → the previous night, now → thenWhen tenses do not backshift: universal truths and a present reporting verb

Common traps

Assuming every tense must change and moving 'had completed' somewhere else.
Picking the continuous form because it also begins with 'had'.

Both routes into the past perfect are keyed elsewhere: 'I bought a new laptop' → 'he had bought' at 15 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.24, and 'I have seen that movie already' → 'he had seen' at 17 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.23.

Here the quote is already past perfect, so there is no step left to take.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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