Select the correct option for the Direct Speech conversion of the sentence below. He commented that the policy’s efficacy would remain conjectural until longitudinal data accrued.

Correct — B. Converting to direct speech undoes the backshift.

would remain → will remain: would is the past form of will.
accrued → accrue: after until, English uses the simple present for a future event, and the report had moved it back to the past.

Add the comma and quotation marks after He commented, and drop that: 'The policy’s efficacy will remain conjectural until longitudinal data accrue.' → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  He commented "The efficacy of the policy remains conjectural as the data are yet to be collected." — Remains turns a prediction into a present fact, and 'as the data are yet to be collected' swaps the until time limit for a reason. It also drops longitudinal and the comma after commented.
• (c)
  He commented, "Until longitudinal data had accrued, the policy’s efficacy might have remained conjectural." — Pushes the tenses further back. 'Had accrued' and 'might have remained' speculate about the past, but he was predicting, so direct speech needs will remain and accrue.
• (d)
  He commented, "Efficacy remains conjecture till data accumulates." — Remains loses the future of would remain, and the sentence drops whose efficacy and which data. It also turns the adjective conjectural into the noun conjecture.

After a past reporting verb, reported speech moves each tense one step back. Converting to direct speech moves it forward again: would → will, could → can, past → present.

A time clause after until, when or before takes the simple present even for the future: 'until longitudinal data accrue', not 'until longitudinal data will accrue'. Reported, that present became accrued. Restored, it is accrue again.

Everything else — 'the policy’s efficacy', conjectural, longitudinal — carries over unchanged.

Key facts

• Reporting shifts will to would, and converting back to direct speech restores will.
• In a time clause after until, when or before, the simple present refers to the future: 'until longitudinal data accrue'.
• Conjectural means based on guesswork rather than firm evidence.
• Longitudinal data are collected from the same subjects over a period of time.

Common traps

• Keeping the reported tenses because they are printed in the given sentence — direct speech restores the speaker's own tense.
• Doubting accrue after will remain — a time clause after until takes the simple present, even for the future.

No directly related past PYQ was found.