Change the following sentence from Direct Speech to Indirect Speech.
The teacher said to the erring students, “Why don’t you do your homework at home?”

Correct option is C

Correct indirect speech: (c) The teacher asked the erring students why they did not do their homework at home.
Definition (Direct Speech):
• Direct Speech → Speaker’s exact words in quotation marks (“ ”). (Hindi: वक्ता के शब्द ज्यों-के-त्यों)
Definition (Indirect/Reported Speech):
• Indirect Speech → Reporting without quotation marks, with necessary grammar changes. (Hindi: अप्रत्यक्ष कथन)
Step-by-step conversion (in detail):
• Reporting verb: “said to” → asked (because it is a question)
• Remove quotation marks; no question mark in indirect form.
• Since it begins with Why, it stays a Wh-question, so we do NOT use “if/whether”.
• Word order change (very important): Direct question order → Indirect statement order:
– Direct: Why don’t you do…? (inversion/auxiliary style)
– Indirect: why they did not do… (subject before verb)
• Pronoun changes:
– “you” (students) → they
– “your” → their
• Tense backshift (because reporting verb is past “said”):
– “don’t” (do not) → did not
Grammatical rule (English):
• Wh-question in indirect: asked + wh-word + subject + verb (NO inversion)
व्याकरणिक नियम (Hindi):
• Wh-question का indirect बनाते समय क्रम होता है: wh-word + subject + verb, inversion नहीं होता; past reporting verb होने पर tense पीछे जाता है (do not → did not)।
Why other options are incorrect:
• (a) “that why” is incorrect (either “that” or “why”, not together).
• (b) keeps direct question order “why did they…” (inversion) → incorrect in indirect speech.
• (d) changes the meaning into an आदेश (command). Original is a question/rebuke.
Hence, option (c) is the correct answer.