Question

She said, 'There was a terrible storm last night."
a. She said that there was a terrible storm last night.
b. She said that there had been a terrible storm the previous night.
c. She said that there was a terrible storm the previous night.
d. She said that there would be a terrible storm the previous night.​

Answer 1

B . She said that there had been a terrible storm the previous night.

Answer 2

The correct answer is as follows:

Option b) She said that there had been a terrible storm the previous night.

• The given sentence has been transformed into indirect speech.
• Since the reporting verb is in the past tense, the verb of the subordinate clause- 'was', changes into its past perfect form 'had'.
• While using the perfect tense in indirect speech, 'been' is added after had/have.
• The 'comma' changes into 'that'.
• The last night changes to 'previous night' in the indirect speech.