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Indirect Questions

Indirect questions are more polite forms of asking questions that use introductory phrases instead of auxiliary verbs. They are used when talking to someone unfamiliar or in professional settings. To form an indirect question, an introductory phrase like "I wonder" or "Can you tell me" is used followed by the content of the question in a statement format rather than a question format. Yes/no questions in an indirect form will add "if/whether". Indirect questions change the word order and omit auxiliary verbs to make the question more polite and formal.

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33 views

Indirect Questions

Indirect questions are more polite forms of asking questions that use introductory phrases instead of auxiliary verbs. They are used when talking to someone unfamiliar or in professional settings. To form an indirect question, an introductory phrase like "I wonder" or "Can you tell me" is used followed by the content of the question in a statement format rather than a question format. Yes/no questions in an indirect form will add "if/whether". Indirect questions change the word order and omit auxiliary verbs to make the question more polite and formal.

Uploaded by

Shaira Ortega
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Indirect questions (polite questions)

Examples of direct and indirect questions:


Direct: Where is the post office?
Indirect: Could you tell me where the post office is?
Direct: Can you play football?
Indirect: I wonder if you could play football.
Direct: Is Ana here?
Indirect: I would like to know if Ana is here.

What are indirect questions?


Indirect questions are a little more formal and polite. We use them when talking to a
person we don’t know very well, or in professional situations, and their form is a little
different.
How to form them?
We must use some introductory phrases at the beginning:

I wonder… Tell me…


Can you tell me… I’m not sure…
Do you know… Please tell me…
Let me know… I would like to know…
I was wondering… Could you tell me…
Explain… Do you have any idea…

…and we omit auxiliary verbs like do/does/did:


Direct question: Why did he study so much?
Indirect question: I wonder why (did) he studied so much.

The word order changes too when the direct question starts with a question word like
how, what, when, where, which, who, whose, or why. The word order is like a positive
sentence, not like a question.
Direct question: Where can I buy a book?
Indirect question: Do you know where I can buy a book?

Yes or N0 questions
If the direct question is a “yes or no” question (it has no question word like what, who,
when, where, why, or how), then in the indirect question we will add “if/whether” like
in the examples:
Direct question: Do you want to work here?
Indirect question: I wonder if you want to work here.

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