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Reporting yes/no questions and wh-questions.
Reported questions present the content of a question without using the original direct-question structure.
They normally use statement word order and do not normally require quotation marks or a question mark at the end of the reported clause.
Yes/no questions are commonly reported using if or whether followed by statement word order.
For example, "Are you ready?" becomes She asked if I was ready.
If can introduce a reported yes/no question when the meaning is whether the answer is yes or no.
For example, "Did he call?" becomes She asked if he had called.
Whether can introduce reported yes/no questions and is especially useful when alternatives are relevant or in more formal English.
For example, He asked whether I was ready.
If and whether are often interchangeable in ordinary reported yes/no questions, but whether is preferred in some formal structures and before infinitives or explicit alternatives.
For example, I asked whether he would come or whether to stay.
Wh-questions are reported using the original question word followed by statement word order.
For example, "Where do you live?" becomes He asked where I lived.
Reported questions normally use subject + verb order rather than the auxiliary inversion found in direct questions.
For example, "Where does she work?" becomes He asked where she worked, not where did she work.
The auxiliary do is normally removed when a direct question is converted into a reported question with another tense or auxiliary.
For example, "Where did he go?" becomes She asked where he had gone, not She asked where did he go.
What can introduce a reported question while preserving its role as the question word.
For example, "What do you want?" becomes He asked what I wanted.
Who can remain the subject or object question word in a reported question, depending on the original sentence.
For example, "Who called you?" becomes She asked who had called me.
Where introduces reported questions concerning location or destination.
For example, "Where are they going?" becomes He asked where they were going.
When introduces reported questions concerning time.
For example, "When will she arrive?" becomes He asked when she would arrive.
Why introduces reported questions concerning reasons or causes.
For example, "Why did you leave?" becomes She asked why I had left.
How can introduce reported questions concerning manner, degree, method, or process.
For example, "How did you solve it?" becomes He asked how I had solved it.
How much and how many remain together when reporting questions involving quantity or number.
For example, "How much does it cost?" becomes She asked how much it cost.
Which remains as the question determiner or pronoun when reporting a question about a choice among alternatives.
For example, "Which train are you taking?" becomes He asked which train I was taking.
Reported questions may undergo the same tense backshift as reported statements when the reporting verb establishes a past viewpoint.
For example, "Are you working?" becomes He asked whether I was working.
Pronouns may change when the identities and grammatical roles of the original speaker, listener, and reporter change.
For example, "Are you coming with me?" becomes She asked me whether I was coming with her.
Time and place references may change when the reporter has a different temporal or spatial viewpoint.
For example, "Are you leaving tomorrow?" can become He asked whether I was leaving the next day.
A reported question is an embedded question and follows the word order of a statement rather than a direct question.
For example, Do you know where he lives? contains the embedded question where he lives.
Prepositions required by the original question may remain in the reported structure.
For example, "Who were you talking to?" becomes She asked who I had been talking to.
Modal verbs in reported questions can change or remain unchanged depending on their original form and meaning.
For example, "Can you help?" becomes She asked if I could help, while "Could you help?" can remain could.
Some reported questions can be reduced to a question-word + to-infinitive construction when the meaning and subject relationship allow it.
For example, She asked what she should do can become She asked what to do.
Whether and alternative structures can report questions that ask the listener to choose between possibilities.
For example, "Should I call or email?" becomes She asked whether she should call or email.
A reported question inside a larger statement normally does not take a question mark unless the whole sentence is itself a question.
For example, He asked where I lived. But in Do you know where I live? the complete sentence is a question.
Embedded and reported questions can be used to make requests for information less direct and more polite.
For example, Could you tell me where the station is? is more indirect than Where is the station?
Direct questions use question word order, while reported and embedded questions normally use statement word order.
Compare Where does he live? with Do you know where he lives?
Use statement word order inside reported questions and apply appropriate changes to auxiliaries, tenses, pronouns, and time references.
Common mistakes include retaining question inversion, using do-support unnecessarily, using if with a wh-question, and placing a question mark after every embedded question.