Select the option that expresses the given sentence in direct speech.
The customer asked the bank manager if they were working on the following Saturday.

Correct option is B

The correct direct speech is (b) The customer said to the bank manager, “Are you working next Saturday?”
Definitions:
· Indirect speech: Reports what someone said without quoting exactly.
· Direct speech: Repeats the speaker’s exact words within quotation marks.
Rules of Conversion (Indirect → Direct Speech):
· “asked if they were...” changes back to “Are you...?” in direct speech.
· “the following Saturday” (indirect form) becomes “next Saturday” (direct form).
· The pronoun “they” in indirect speech refers to “you” (the bank manager) in direct speech.
Conversion:
· Indirect: The customer asked the bank manager if they were working on the following Saturday.
· Direct: The customer said to the bank manager, “Are you working next Saturday?”
Why Other Options Are Incorrect:
· (a) Incorrect time expression: "previous Saturday" is not the right transformation.
· (c) Uses present tense “asks” and incorrect word order.
· (d) Incorrect tense and reference ("were they..." is not what the customer directly asked).
Final Direct Sentence:
The customer said to the bank manager, “Are you working next Saturday?”
This matches the structure and intent of the original indirect sentence.