Question

The Basic rules for converting direct speech into indirect (for interrogative sentences) are ​

Answer 1

The Basic rules for converting direct speech into indirect (for interrogative sentences) are as follows:

• Commas and inverted commas are removed.
• The conjunction 'that' is not used in indirect speech for interrogative sentences. Though 'that' is used for all affirmative sentences.
• On changing into indirect speech the question sentence is expressed in the affirmative form instead of interrogative form. and a Question mark (?) is not applied at the end of the sentence.  
• The reporting verbs like 'said', 'told' are replaced by verbs such as 'asked', 'inquired' in interrogative sentences.
• Personal pronouns change in Indirect speech.  Pronouns of first person and second person are changed into indirect form correspondingly and Pronouns of third person do not change.

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• Tense of the sentence changes likewise.
• simple present → Simple past
• present continuous → past continuous
• present perfect → past perfect
• Present perfect continuous → Past perfect continuous
• Past indefinite → Past perfect
• Past continuous → Past perfect continuous
• Past perfect → (No change)
• Past perfect continuous (No change)

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• Will → would
• Shall → should
• can → could

Words expressing nearness in time or place are generally changed into the words expressing distance.

• now → then
• here → there
• ago → before
• today → that day
• tomorrow → the next day, the following day  
• yesterday → the day before, the previous day
• this → these
• that → those

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