Change into indirect narration They said, "Alas! We lost the match."
Correct answer: D. They exclaimed with sorrow that they had lost the match.
- A. They exclaimed with sorrow that they lost the match.
- B. They exclaimed with sorrow we had lost the match.
- C. They exclaimed with sorrow that they have lost the match.
- D. They exclaimed with sorrow that they had lost the match.
Explanation
When converting direct speech to indirect speech, it is important to capture the original emotion, which is done here with 'exclaimed with sorrow' for 'Alas!'. The pronoun 'we' changes to 'they' to fit the perspective of the reporters. The verb 'lost' in the simple past tense changes to 'had lost' in the past perfect tense to accurately reflect the sequence of events. Option D correctly applies all these rules, while the other options fail due to incorrect verb tense or missing components necessary for indirect speech.
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About Direct and Indirect Speech
Direct speech gives a speaker’s exact words, whereas indirect speech reports the meaning without quotation marks. Questions cover reporting verbs, pronoun changes, tense backshift, time and place expressions, punctuation, and the transformation of questions, commands and requests, including cases where backshift is not required.
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