📅 Created: 15 Jun, 2023
🔄 Updated: 23 Aug, 2025

Jack said: “I was at home yesterday.” Jack said ___ . ?

Explanation

The correct answer is D: "he had been at home the day before," because it accurately reflects the reported speech and the shift in verb tense that occurs when transforming direct speech into indirect speech.

In the original statement, Jack is speaking in the past tense: "I was at home yesterday." When we report this statement, especially when the reporting verb is in the past tense ("Jack said"), we generally need to shift the tenses appropriately. This leads us to change "was" to "had been" to accurately portray the sequence of events. Additionally, the phrase "yesterday" refers to a day before today, and thus, when reported later, this changes to "the day before."

Option A ("he was at home.") remains in the present tense and thus is incorrect because it does not reflect the timing correctly. Option B ("Jack said he was at home the day before") maintains the incorrect verb tense also, as "was" does not account for the transition to past perfect. Option C ("he will be at home.") changes the meaning completely to future tense, which is not relevant to the original statement. Hence, D is the only option that accurately conveys Jack's original statement in correct reported speech.