Choose the correct indirect narration of the following statement from the given alternatives: The judge said, "What do you have to say on your defence?"
The judge asked what he had to say on his defence.
The direct question, 'What do you have to say on your defence?', is spoken by the judge and must be reported as an indirect question.
A 'wh-' question is reported with the reporting verb 'asked' and the same question word 'what' acting as a link, without a question mark.
The interrogative word order changes to statement order, so 'do you have to say' becomes 'he had to say' with subject before verb.
The auxiliary 'do... have to' in the present backshifts to the past 'had to', while the pronoun 'your' becomes 'his'.
Option 1 'was to say' and option 3 'is to say' change the meaning of the obligation and do not report 'have to' correctly, and option 2 keeps the future 'will have to', ignoring backshift.
Only option 4 renders the present 'have to say' as the past 'had to say' in proper statement order.
Hence the correct indirect narration is The judge asked what he had to say on his defence.
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Important Questions from Direct and Indirect Speech
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