Let’s talk about Indirect Questions.
Okay.
There are two variations.
The first is for asking a question in a more polite or formal manner.
Oh, like “Are you finished, yet?” might sound kinda rude.
Right, so we might say something like, “Do you know when you’ll be finished?”
Yeah.
The second variation is for reporting a question,
probably one that you or someone else asked in the past.
Like Reported Speech, but for Questions?
That’s what this is!
But we have to change the structure a bit more than we do with declarative reported speech
How so?
Let’s look at it in segments.
For both variations, there are three parts to indirect questions.
Okay.
In the middle is the crux, which is the unknown part of your sentence,
or the problem you need answered.
That’s the most important part, I guess, 'cause it’s why we’re asking the question.
Precisely.
What follows is the content, which contains all the details of the question.
And at the beginning is the introductory clause.
What’s that?
The intro is what makes the sentence indirect.
For reported questions, it’s usually “she asked” or “he asked”.
Oh, instead of “she said” and “he said”.
Right, and ‘asked’ is the most common verb here, but we can use others like ‘wondered’,
‘enquired’, ‘wanted to know’, ‘debated’, and more.
Got it.
What if you’re asking a polite or formal question?
Then we use a polite expression like ‘could you tell me,’ or ‘I was wondering’ …
Or ‘do you mind if I ask,’?
Yeah!
Sure, I know those.
Great, but before we move on:
notice that some of these introductory clauses are in question form themselves, while others are not.
I see.
Which intro you use determines whether you end the sentence with a question mark or a period.
A question can end with a period?
With indirect speech, you can convey a question, but the form may or may not be interrogative.
The form determines the punctuation.
But ultimately, it’s the question meaning that’s really important.
Okay.
What’s the crux?
Those are generally the question words from the original question.
You mean: who, what, where, when, how, and why?
Yep.
Sometimes we include a noun or adjective after the question word to make it more specific,
like ‘what color’, ‘how many countries’, and ‘how long’.
Oh, right. Got it.
But what if the original question doesn’t have any of these?
Like a yes/no question?
Then we use ‘whether’ or ‘if’.
What’s the difference?
No difference.
You choose whichever one you prefer.
Okay. That seems easy enough.
Yep.
But get ready, because the third part is the tricky one.
Don’t we just use the rest of the original question?
Well, we could start with that,
but then we’d have to change a couple things, and that can get confusing.
What kind of things?
First, we get rid of the helping verb do, if we’ve got one,
unless we’ve got a negative question.
But if do was past, then the main verb needs to be past now,
and if do had the third-person ‘s’, the main verb needs that now.
Uh…
Second, we undo the inversion,
which means that no helping verb (or be when it’s the main and only verb) should come before the subject.
The subject comes first, and the whole verb comes after it.
…Yeah, I’m not going to remember this.
Basically, those two things are the reverse
of what we would do to turn a declarative sentence into an interrogative one.
So instead of undoing the question structure,
let’s just consider it as a declarative statement to begin with.
What do you mean?
Don’t worry about inversion and the thing with ‘do’.
Just take a look at these questions.
If you knew the answers, how would you state them (in complete sentences)?
“Jacob – or somebody – bought you those flowers.”
“The concert takes place in the park – or somewhere.”
“You have read my book.”
Or “you haven’t read it.”
Great! That’s what we need.
The right words in the right order.
Just take away the unknown, or whatever we’re asking in the crux.
Right, because we can’t say them if they’re unknown.
That’s why we’re asking the question, after all.
Good point.
And we’re almost done!
But before we do the last thing, let’s review and practice.
Okay.
We start with an intro.
Let’s have one for a polite question…
“I was wondering.”
… and one for reported speech.
“He wanted to know.”
Good.
On to the crux, or the important thing you’re actually asking.
In the first sentence, it’s ‘what’.
Yeah… but it’s more specific than that.
Oh. ‘What time’.
That’s it.
What about the second sentence?
Well, it doesn’t have a question word.
So what do we use?
‘If’.
Great.
Third part.
How would you say the top sentence as a full answer?
“The ceremony ends at … 9:30,” or whenever.
And the bottom sentence?
“Aliens are real,”
… or “aliens aren’t real.”
Okay!
Take away the unknowns, and put the whole thing together.
“I was wondering what time the ceremony ends.”
And “Richard wanted to know if aliens are real.”
Well done!
Thanks!
What’s the final thing we need to know?
In addition to having those three segments,
reported questions need to follow the same steps as any other reported speech.
Can you remind us what those are?
First, there should be no comma and quotation marks.
Second, we make the verb more past.
(Unless it still applies now.)
We call this ‘backshifting’.
And third, we have to change point-of-view words.
These steps go for all reported speech, whether they are statements or questions.
So it’s a good idea to review basic reported speech before you practice reported questions.
But we don’t do them for polite questions, do we?
I mean, it’s not like there’s an old context, and we need to adapt the words to the new context.
That is an excellent point.
We don’t do any of those steps for polite or formal inquiries
in which we’re asking for information.
However, we sometimes backshift a verb if we’re politely or humbly requesting a favor.
This is more likely for modal verbs.
You mean we use ‘would’, ‘could’, and ‘should’ a lot in polite requests.
That’s right.
You could backshift other verbs, especially if you feel uncertain about the request.
But often, whether or not you backshift comes down to your own personal preference.
Got it.
Anything else I should know?
Yeah.
If you took these indirect questions literally, how would you respond?
“Yes, I could.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Okay.”
Hm.
Are those responses helpful?
No.
They don’t tell the asker what they really want to know.
Yeah.
Again, the meaning is more important than the structure,
so be sure to address the real question instead of – or in addition to – the polite phrasing of it.
Makes sense.
Okay, to recap: indirect questions need an intro like “they wondered” or “could we ask”;
a crux like ‘who’ or ‘if’;
and the content, which is the details of the question.
Right.
And at the end, use either a period or a question mark, depending on which intro you used.
Yeah.
For polite or formal inquiries and requests, that’s it.
But for reported questions, we also go through the same steps as with any other reported speech.
You got it!
Cool.