A sentence is provided in direct speech. From the four given options, choose the one that most accurately conveys the sentence in its corresponding indirect speech. Ritika said, “Rajiv does not listen to me.”

The correct option is (c). The reporting verb is said (past tense). When we change direct speech to indirect speech, the tense generally shifts back by one step (backshift). Here, does not listen is in present simple, so it changes to did not listen in past simple. Also, the pronoun me must change according to the speaker and listener. Since Ritika is speaking, me becomes her in indirect speech. Therefore, the correct indirect speech is: Ritika said that Rajiv didn’t listen to her. Rules of conversion used: Tense backshift: Present simple → Past simple (does not listen → did not listen). Pronoun change: me → her (as per subject Ritika). Optional connector: ‘that’ is commonly used after ‘said’ in indirect speech. Why other options are incorrect: Option A has wrong grammar: don’t cannot be used with Rajiv (singular), and it also misses correct tense backshift. Option B mixes incorrect forms: doesn’t listened is grammatically wrong. Option D is wrong because after did not we must use base verb listen, not listened. So the correct answer is (c)