Question

Alex: ''I don't like onion'' Alex said that she would like onion. Alex said that she wasn't liking onion. When we report someone’s words we can do it in two ways: (1) we can use direct speech with quotation marks (“I work in an office.”), or (2) we can use reported speech (She said she worked in an office.) Speech reports consist of two parts: the reporting clause (She said that …) in which we usually use are porting verb (e.g. say, tell, ask, etc.) and the reported clause (…she worked in an office.).Some verbs (accept, agree, complain, feel, say, etc.) connected with reporting can be followed bya that-clause acting as the direct object: She said that she worked in an office.Usually we change the tense of what was actually said in direct speech. The present simple tense (‘I dance’) usually changes to the past simple (she/he danced) in reported speech. Therefore, in the test sentence we should change ‘don’t like’ into ‘didn't like’. But it is not always necessary to change the tense.If something is still true now – she still works in an office – we can use the present simple in the reported sentence. But in the test the variant ‘Alex said that she doesn't like onion.’ is not given. Thus, we are to choose only ANSWER 3.

Accepted Answer

Alex said that she hadn't liked onion. Alex said that she didn't like onion. c

Question	Alex: ''I don't like onion''
A	Alex said that she hadn't liked onion.
B	Alex said that she would like onion.
C	Alex said that she didn't like onion.
D	Alex said that she wasn't liking onion.
Answer	c
Remark	When we report someone’s words we can do it in two ways: (1) we can use direct speech with quotation marks (“I work in an office.”), or (2) we can use reported speech (She said she worked in an office.) Speech reports consist of two parts: the reporting clause (She said that …) in which we usually use are porting verb (e.g. say, tell, ask, etc.) and the reported clause (…she worked in an office.).Some verbs (accept, agree, complain, feel, say, etc.) connected with reporting can be followed bya that-clause acting as the direct object: She said that she worked in an office.Usually we change the tense of what was actually said in direct speech. The present simple tense (‘I dance’) usually changes to the past simple (she/he danced) in reported speech. Therefore, in the test sentence we should change ‘don’t like’ into ‘didn't like’. But it is not always necessary to change the tense.If something is still true now – she still works in an office – we can use the present simple in the reported sentence. But in the test the variant ‘Alex said that she doesn't like onion.’ is not given. Thus, we are to choose only ANSWER 3.

Alex Onion Reported Direct Speech Worked Change Simple