Verb Tenses in Reported Speech

In this exercise, we need to choose the correct verb form to complete the sentence, keeping in mind the rules of reported speech and the sequence of tenses.

Let's look at the given sentence: The police reported that nearly twenty people blank in the flood.

The main verb in this sentence is reported, which is in the past tense. This tells us we are dealing with reported speech.

In reported speech, if the reporting verb is in the past, the verb in the reported clause usually shifts back in time. This is called backshifting.

Let's analyze the timeline. The drowning happened before the police reported it. When one past action happens before another past action, we use the Past Perfect tense.

The Past Perfect is formed using had plus the past participle of the verb. In this case, that would be had drowned.