Which of the following examples in reported speech is grammatically incorrect ?

Question

Accepted Answer

Option 3 is grammatically incorrect because it mixes past and present tenses inappropriately in reported speech. When reporting a statement in the past, the tense of the verb in the reported clause should generally be shifted to the past. In this case, "He said that he *does* not wish to see any of them..." should be "He said that he *did* not wish to see any of them..." to maintain consistency with the past tense reporting verb "said." The rest of the sentence, "and ordered them to go away," is correctly in the past tense, further highlighting the error in the first part of the reported clause.

Here's why the other options are incorrect:

*   **Option 1:** "The Mayor said that it gave him great pleasure to be there that evening." This sentence is grammatically correct. The reporting verb "said" is in the past tense, and the reported clause "it gave him great pleasure..." is also correctly in the past tense ("gave"). The change from "this evening" to "that evening" is also correct for reported speech.

*   **Option 2:** "He said that he would go as soon as it was possible." This sentence is grammatically correct. "Said" is in the past tense. "Would go" is the correct past tense form of "will go," and "was possible" is also correctly in the past tense.

*   **Option 4:** "My teacher often says to me that if I don't work hard I shall fail." This sentence is grammatically correct. Because the reporting verb "says" is in the present tense, there is no need to change the tense in the reported clause. The conditional sentence "if I don't work hard I shall fail" remains in its original tense.