Concept:When converting direct speech to indirect speech, the tense of the verb must be shifted back (backshift). Past continuous tense changes to past perfect continuous.
Rule / Clue:The original direct speech uses the past continuous tense ("was going"). In indirect speech, this becomes past perfect continuous ("had been going") because the reporting verb is in the past tense ("said"). Also, the first-person pronoun "I" changes to "she" to match the subject of the reporting verb.
Explanation:The sentence "I was going to the market" in direct speech must be reported. The correct backshift for past continuous is past perfect continuous, giving "she had been going". Option A correctly uses "had been going". Option B uses "was gone", which is incorrect verb form. Option C uses present continuous "is going", which does not backshift the tense. Option D uses past perfect "had gone", which would be correct only if the original was simple past ("I went"). Therefore, only Option A follows the proper tense change and pronoun change. The conjunction "that" is added, and quotation marks are removed.
Answer:Option A: She said that she had been going to the market.