Reported speech: questions
Look at these examples to see how we can tell someone what another person asked.
direct speech: 'Do you work from home?' he said.
indirect speech: He asked me if I worked from home.
direct speech: 'Who did you see?' she asked.
indirect speech: She asked me who I'd seen.
direct speech: 'Could you write that down for me?' she asked.
indirect speech: She asked me to write it down.
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
- Grammar test 1
Read the explanation to learn more.
Grammar explanation
A reported question is when we tell someone what another person asked. To do this, we can use direct speech or indirect speech.
direct speech: 'Do you like working in sales?' he asked.
indirect speech: He asked me if I liked working in sales.
In indirect speech, we change the question structure (e.g. Do you like) to a statement structure (e.g. I like).
We also often make changes to the tenses and other words in the same way as for reported statements (e.g. have done → had done, today → that day). You can learn about these changes on the Reported speech 1 – statements page.
Yes/no questions
In yes/no questions, we use if or whether to report the question. If is more common.
'Are you going to the Helsinki conference?'
- He asked me if I was going to the Helsinki conference.
'Have you finished the project yet?'
- She asked us whether we'd finished the project yet.
Questions with a question word
In what, where, why, who, when or how questions, we use the question word to report the question.
'What time does the train leave?'
- He asked me what time the train left.
'Where did he go?'
- She asked where he went.
Reporting verbs
The most common reporting verb for questions is ask, but we can also use verbs like enquire, want to know or wonder.
'Did you bring your passports?'
- She wanted to know if they'd brought their passports.
'When could you get this done by?'
- He wondered when we could get it done by.
Offers, requests and suggestions
If the question is making an offer, request or suggestion, we can use a specific verb pattern instead, for example offer + infinitive, ask + infinitive or suggest + ing.
'Would you like me to help you?'
- He offered to help me.
'Can you hold this for me, please?'
- She asked me to hold it.
'Why don't we check with Joel?'
- She suggested checking with Joel.
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
- Grammar test 2
Hello, dear teachers and team!
Could you please tell me which ones are correct (if any :) )
He asked me how old I was. (is it the only correct option or can I also say)
2. He asked me how old I am (if my age is still the same)
3. He asked me if I could swim (is this the only correct option or
4. He asked me if I can swim (could also be okay)
5. He asked me where I was from.
6. He asked me where I am from.
Does backshifting still stand in any case with reported questions?
Thank you very much indeed!
Hello howtosay_,
As you say, this is correct.
Yes, this is possible.
Yes, both possible. The difference is that 'can' makes the question about the present; 'could' may be a question about the past (when he asked) but may or may not be about the present (when you are reporting the question)
Again, both possible. Here there is no difference in meaning because where a person is from is a permanent fact, not something that changes over time.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello,
Could you clarify this moment please:
direct speech: 'Could you write that down for me?' she asked.
indirect speech: She asked me to write it down.
Shouldn't it be like - She asked me if I could write it down? Otherwise it says that she gives an order to do so(?).
If this question was answered before, please provide me with the link if you can. Sorry for the trouble.
Hello no.name,
The most common way to report a request is with 'ask someone to do something', so the sentence is fine. You can use the form 'ask if someone could do something' instead. This form is a little more polite, I would say.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello, dear teachers and team!
Could you please help me with the usage of "used to" in both reported speech and reported questions?
For example, direct speech: "He used to have a dog". Is it
2. He said he had used to have a dog.
And direct question "Did you use to have a dog" Is it
3. He asked me if I used to have a dog
4. He asked me if I had used to have a dog
Thank you for your precious work and help and I am grateful for the asnwer to this post in advance!!!
Hello howtosay_,
We do not change used to into other forms such as perfect or continuous, so the correct answers are (1) and (3).
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Peter :
In English, intransitive verbs (verbs with no object) can not be passive :
e.g: arrive, sleep, laugh, run, set, happen, die, fall, rise, swim, wait, cough, improve...
But in this example with the verb "𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥" we can say:
-Many trees 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐥 because of the storm.
But we cannot say:
-T̴h̴e̴ ̴w̴i̴n̴d̴ ̴f̴e̴l̴l̴ ̴t̴h̴e̴ ̴t̴r̴e̴e̴s̴.̴ (grammatically incorrect)
--> 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙄𝙨𝙨𝙪𝙚 : The verb "fall" is intransitive. It can't take a direct object ("many trees").
--> 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙭: Swap to the transitive verb "fell" (meaning "to knock down"), whose past is "felled":
-The storm 𝗳𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 many trees. (grammatically correct)
Hello MounirBr44,
Yes, that's right. The verb fall with the past form felled is transitive and so can be used with passive voice:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you Peter for your help.
Hello Peter,
About this sentence given in test 2: 'When 𝐡𝐚𝐝 you last 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧?'
This sentence uses past perfect (had + participle past). But the past perfect mustn't used in isolation, it needs a reference point in the past. The past perfect tense is used to describe an action that was completed before another action.
How to explain this point please?
Think you.