Reported speech and tense sequence: complete the sentence about a baby and a safety pin Frame: "A woman came in with a baby who, she said, ______ a safety pin." Use the correct tense for reported speech about a completed past action. Choose the correct option.

Given data

• Main clause in past: "A woman came in …"
• Reported statement about a completed earlier action.

Concept/ApproachIn reported speech with a past reporting verb (came, said), an action completed before that point takes the past perfect: "had swallowed."

Option analysishad swallowed — correct past perfect for a prior completed action. ✅has swallowed — present perfect; mismatches the past reporting frame.swallowed — simple past; ambiguous timing relative to the reporting.was swallowing — past continuous; indicates ongoing action, not completed ingestion.

Final Answerhad swallowed