SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 23 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 indirect speech. From the four given options, choose the one that most accurately conveys the sentence in its corresponding direct speech. The assistant said that she was not feeling well and would leave early.

(a)“I am not feeling well and will leave early,” the assistant said.
(b)“I was not feeling well and would leave early,” said the assistant.
(c)“I’m not well and am leaving,” she said.
(d)“I am not well and I leave now,” said the assistant.

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Going back to direct speech undoes each shift the report made:

was not feeling → am not feeling
would leave → will leave
she → I, because the assistant is the speaker

'Well' and 'early' stay as they are. That gives 'I am not feeling well and will leave early,' the assistant said → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
“I was not feeling well and would leave early,” said the assistant. — Copies the reported forms was and would inside the quotation marks. Direct speech gives the speaker's own words, so the backshift is undone: am, will.
(c)
“I’m not well and am leaving,” she said. — Am leaving is not what 'would leave' reports — reported, am leaving becomes was leaving. The option also drops feeling and early.
(d)
“I am not well and I leave now,” said the assistant. — I leave now changes the content: reported, now becomes then, not early, and leave becomes left, not would leave. 'Feeling' is dropped too.

Concept

Converting indirect speech to direct runs the backshift in reverse: was → am/is, would → will, could → can.

The reporter's pronoun for the speaker becomes I, the linking that disappears, and the words go inside quotation marks.

Content words — well, early — stay exactly as reported. A version that adds, drops or swaps them is no longer what was said.

Where the reporting clause sits — 'the assistant said' or 'said the assistant' — does not decide the answer. The verbs inside the quotation marks do.

Key facts

Indirect to direct: would → will, was → am or is, could → can.
The pronoun the reporter used for the speaker (she, he) becomes I inside the quotation.
After a quotation, 'the assistant said' and 'said the assistant' are both correct.

Study next

Reverse conversion of time words: that day → today, then → nowPast continuous and present continuous in narrationPunctuating direct speech: the comma inside the closing quotation mark

Common traps

Copying the reported verbs into the quotation — was and would are the reporter's shifted forms, not the speaker's words.
Accepting a shorter paraphrase like 'I'm not well and am leaving' — direct speech must carry every detail, including early.

The same would → will reversal decides 12 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.23, where 'He said that he would join the meeting after lunch' becomes 'I will join the meeting after lunch,' he said.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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