Report: The King: How will the new policy benefit college students? Minister 2: The policy will provide for an interdisciplinary education that has flexible study plans.
Report: The King: How will the new policy benefit college students? Minister 2: The policy will provide for an interdisciplinary education that has flexible study plans.
The King asked Minister 2 how the new education policy would benefit college students, and Minister 2 told him that the policy would provide for an interdisciplinary education that had flexible study plans. Both sentences require backshift of tense and, for the question, a change to assertive word order.
Marking Scheme
- 11 mark for correctly reporting the King's question with 'would benefit' and assertive word order.
- 21 mark for correctly reporting Minister 2's statement with 'would provide' and 'that had'.
Hint
Shift all verbs one tense back: 'will' becomes 'would' and 'has' becomes 'had'. Change question word order to statement word order.
Quick Oral Answer
The King asked Minister 2 how the new policy would benefit college students. Minister 2 told the King that the policy would provide for an interdisciplinary education that had flexible study plans. I changed 'will' to 'would' and 'has' to 'had'.
Analysis & Explanation
This question tests converting both a Wh-question and a statement from direct to indirect (reported) speech.
Concept
- For the King's question, the reporting verb 'asked' triggers backshift: 'will' becomes 'would', and interrogative word order changes to assertive word order ('how the policy would benefit...'), with no question mark used.
- For Minister 2's reply, the reporting verb 'told' triggers backshift: 'will provide' becomes 'would provide', and 'has' becomes 'had' in the subordinate clause introduced by 'that'.
Common mistakes (परीक्षा में सावधानी)
- Forgetting to change 'has' to 'had' in the dependent clause 'that has flexible study plans', since students often backshift only the main verb.
- Mixing direct and indirect speech forms in the same sentence, or retaining the question mark after reporting.
- 1 mark is awarded per correctly reported sentence, so both must be attempted.
Real-world
- Reported speech is exactly what journalists use when quoting officials indirectly in news reports.
Common Mistakes
- 1Keeping 'will' unchanged instead of shifting it to 'would', because students forget that past-tense reporting verbs (asked, told) require mandatory backshift of all future tenses.
- 2Retaining the interrogative word order in the reported question, writing 'how will the policy' instead of the correct assertive order 'how the policy would', and adding a question mark at the end.
- 3Changing only the main clause verb ('will provide' to 'would provide') but forgetting to change 'has' to 'had' in the subordinate clause 'that has flexible study plans', since backshift applies to ALL verbs in the reported sentence.
Interesting Facts
Reported speech (also called indirect speech) follows different rules in different languages. In Japanese, there is no tense backshift at all, while in Hindi, only the verb form changes without strict backshift rules like English.
The concept of reported speech was first formally described by the Roman grammarian Priscian in the 5th century CE in his work 'Institutiones Grammaticae', which remained the standard Latin grammar textbook for over 1,000 years.
CBSE has included reported speech in every Class 10 English board exam since 2010 without exception, making it one of the most consistently tested grammar topics with an average weightage of 2-3 marks per paper.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why does 'will' change to 'would' in reported speech?
When the reporting verb is in the past tense (asked, told, said), all tenses shift one step back. 'Will' (simple future) shifts to 'would' (conditional/past future). This is called backshift and applies to all tenses in indirect speech.
Do we always need to change pronouns in reported speech?
Yes, pronouns change based on the perspective of the reporter. First person pronouns of the speaker change to third person, and second person pronouns change to match the listener. However, in this question, no pronoun changes are needed since proper nouns are used.
How do I handle questions in reported speech?
Wh-questions retain the question word (how, what, why) but change to statement word order (subject before verb). So 'How will the policy benefit?' becomes 'how the policy would benefit' without a question mark at the end.