Question

Turn the following conversation into the indirect speech:
The King: What are you doing here? Didn’t you go home?
The beggar: Sir, I have lost a rupee. I have been searching for it since morning.
The king: You are a very greedy fellow.

Answer 1

Hint:Direct speech and indirect speech: Direct speech are those speeches that are spoken exactly the same whereas, indirect speech usually talks about the past that is why we normally change the tense of the spoken words. For example words like ‘say’ or ‘tell’ or ‘ask’ can be replaced with ‘that’ to identify the indirect speech.

Complete answer:
The given conversation is in direct speech and we have to convert this direct speech into indirect speech.
Rules of converting direct speech into indirect speech:

1) Remove all inverted commas and question marks while transforming direct into indirect speech.
2) Indirect sentences or speech should always end with a full stop (.) at the end of the sentence.
3) If the verb inside the inverted commas is in the present tense, change that verb into its corresponding past tense.
4) If the direct sentence is a universal truth, then it remains unchanged in the indirect speech.
Direct speech: The King: What are you doing here? Didn’t you go home?
The beggar: Sir, I have lost a rupee. I have been searching for it since morning.
The king: You are a very greedy fellow.

Indirect speech - The King asked the beggar what he was doing there and why he didn’t go home. The beggar replied that he had lost his penny and that he had been searching for it since morning. The King told him that he was a greedy fellow.

Note: It is very important to understand that the changes of direct and indirect speech depend on factors such as modals, reporting verbs, place, time, tense, pronouns, etc.

1) Present simple tense will change into past simple tense:
Direct speech – Subject + V1 + Object
Indirect speech – Subject + V2 + Object

2) Present continuous tense will change into the past continuous tense.
Direct speech – Subject + is/am/are + V1 + Ing + object
Indirect speech - Subject + was/were + V1 + Ing + object

3) Past simple tense into past perfect tense.
Direct speech – Subject + V2 = Object
Indirect speech – Subject + had + V3 = object
And etc.