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Narrate the following : Maria said, "I was dialing your number, and you called."

Correct answer: C. Maria said that she had been dialing my number, and I had called.

  • A. Maria said that she was dialing my number, and I called.
  • B. Maria told that she had dialed my number, and she had called.
  • C. Maria said that she had been dialing my number, and I had called.
  • D. Maria told that Maria has been dialing my number, and I had called.

Explanation

The original sentence is in past continuous ("was dialing") and simple past ("called"). In reported speech, past continuous changes to past perfect continuous ("had been dialing") and simple past changes to past perfect ("had called") to show the sequence of events.

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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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