Ife asked me … ? — Choose the option that best completes the gap(s)

Analyze the question

This tests reported (indirect) speech, specifically how to report a question. The sentence begins with "Ife asked me", which is past tense, so we must turn the original question into a reported clause.

Explain the concept

When a direct question is reported, two things change:

1. Word order becomes a statement. There is no inversion, so we say "what time it was" and not "what time was it".
2. The tense shifts back after a past reporting verb (asked). Present tense "is" becomes past tense "was".
3. No question mark is needed in the reported form, though the question here carries one only because of the stem's format.

Show the solution

Direct speech: Ife said to me, "What time is it?"

Reported speech: Ife asked me what time it was.

Checking the options:

• A. what time it was has statement word order and the past tense "was", matching "asked". Correct.
• B. what is it by my time has an inverted order and awkward phrasing. Wrong.
• C. what time is it keeps the direct question order. Wrong.
• D. what time it is has the right word order, but the tense stays in the present. It is sometimes acceptable if the time is still relevant, but in standard exam grammar (sequence of tenses) the past tense is expected after "asked". So A is the best answer.

Answer: A, "what time it was".

Tip

For reported questions, remember: "Statement order + back-shift tense." Drop the auxiliary-first order (is it → it was), and move the tense one step back after verbs like asked, said, wondered.