The first part of the sentence ‘Ramya aksed’ has a subject ‘Ramya’ and a verb ‘asked’.
This clause is called the reporting clause. The verb is called the reporting verb.
The part within the quotation marks is called the reported clause, which gives the
exact words spoken by the speaker.
Let’s look at the answer to the question ‘c’.
Ramya asked if / whether those fabrics were from Indonesia.
The teacher asked what the origin of the word could be.
Let’s look at the changes that have taken place.
You will find the following changes.
Change of the pronouns and adjectives (these - those)
Change of the verb in the reported clause (are - were)
Change of question to a statement by adding if / whether
All the above changes are made when the reporting verb is in Past tense.
I. Report the following conversation.
Ramya visits a weaver at Pochampally. She asks him a few questions.
Ramya : Uncle, What are you doing?
Weaver : I’m making a sari. Do you like it?
Ramya : Oh! Yes. What is the price?
Weaver : Five hundred rupees. Do you want to buy it?