Change the narration to Reported Speech. Choose the right option :
"Who has been using my typewriter ?" Said Mother.

Question

Change the narration to Reported Speech. Choose the right option : 
"Who has been using my typewriter ?" Said Mother.

Accepted Answer

To convert the given direct speech into reported speech, we need to follow certain rules of tense change, pronoun adjustment, and sentence structure modification. Let's analyze why Option 3 is the correct choice and why the other options are incorrect.

### Explanation for Option 3:
**Option 3: "Mother asked who had been using her typewriter."**

1. **Tense Change:** In reported speech, the present perfect continuous tense ("has been using") is typically changed to the past perfect continuous tense ("had been using"). This is because the reporting verb "said" is in the past tense, necessitating a backshift in the tense of the reported clause.

2. **Pronoun Adjustment:** The pronoun "my" in the direct speech is changed to "her" to reflect the perspective of the speaker, Mother, in the reported speech.

3. **Sentence Structure:** The question form in direct speech ("Who has been using my typewriter?") is converted into a statement form in reported speech. The word order changes from question format to statement format, which is correctly done in Option 3.

### Explanation for Why Other Options are Incorrect:

**Option 1: "Mother asked who has been using her typewriter."**

- **Tense Error:** The tense "has been using" is not changed to "had been using," which is necessary when converting to reported speech with a past reporting verb. This option fails to apply the correct tense backshift.

**Option 2: "Mother said who was using her typewriter."**

- **Tense Error:** The tense "was using" does not accurately reflect the original tense "has been using." The correct backshift should be to "had been using," not "was using."
- **Structure Error:** The structure implies a statement rather than a question being reported, which is not the intended meaning of the original question.

**Option 4: "Mother asked her typewriter was being used by who."**

- **Structure Error:** This option incorrectly uses passive voice and awkward sentence structure. The phrase "was being used by who" is not a grammatically correct transformation of the original question.
- **Tense and Pronoun Errors:** It also fails to correctly backshift the tense and adjust the pronoun appropriately.

In summary, Option 3 correctly applies the rules of tense backshift, pronoun adjustment, and sentence structure modification necessary for converting the given direct speech into reported speech.