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?''Have you finished the project yet?'
- He asked me if I was going to the Helsinki conference.
- 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?''Where did he go?'
- He asked me what time the train left.
- 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?''When could you get this done by?'
- She wanted to know if they'd brought their passports.
- 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?''Can you hold this for me, please?'
- He offered to help me.
'Why don't we check with Joel?'
- She asked me to hold it.
- She suggested checking with Joel.
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
- Grammar test 2
Does the direct speech "when does the train left?"i asked can be chaged into ' I asked when does the train left?'
Hello rojina-bogati,
First of all, there is an error in the direct speech example. You have mixed present and past forms. The question should be one of these:
When we report a question we don't need to use inversion, so the reported question would be as follows:
Note that there is no question mark (?) here as it is not a question.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
When Peter Schjeldahl found out he had cancer, while driving through upstate New York, he was suddenly overwhelmed by the beauty of the land. “How many times had I seen and loved the sight?” he wondered. “How many more times would I?”
(From The New Yorker@NewYorker, 24 June 2024)
What I would like to know is why the past perfect is used in direct speech ("How many times had I seen and loved the sight?" he wondered). Is it correct? Shouldn't "had" be replaced by "have"? Likewise, shouldn't the "would" in the following question be "will"?
I would appreciate your helping me to understand it.
Hello Sefika,
This is a question better asked of the author of the text. Perfect forms are contextual, so the had seen/had loved must be the speaker reflecting on these activities in relation to something else in his past. I don't know if that is included in the broader text or if the author has simply used a non-standard form here for some reason. We end up getting into speculative territory or even considering whether or not the author has simply made an error or chosen to use the language in a creative way which is atypical of normal usage.
Generally, we provide information on language systems and explain our own examples on this site. We avoid explaining or commenting on decontextualised fragments from fictional works for the reasons above.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi guys,
What happens to questions in reported speech if the question refers to either a habitual status or uses "ever" to convey the meaning of any time? Can either work in Simple Past as the general rule dictates?
1. Where do you usually buy your clothes?
Is "She asked me where I usually bought my clothes." correct?
2. Do you ever go to the cinema?
Is "She asked me if I ever went to the cinema." correct?
Thank you.
Hi AdamCs,
Tense backshifting in reported speech is not obligatory and choosing not to shift the tense back adds extra information as it describes a situation that was true at the time of speaking and is still true at the time of reporting. For example:
Sentence 1 tells us that she loved me when she said it. It does not tell us anything about now - she may still love me or she may not. Sentence 2 tells us that she loved me when she said it and she loves me now.
In your examples you have a similar choice:
In sentence 1 she wanted to know your buying habit at that time - it may or may not still be the same. In sentence 2 we understand that your buying prefences have not changed.
In sentence 1 she asked about your cinema habit at a particular time in the past - you may have changed since then. In sentence 2 we understand that your cinema habit is the same now as it was when she asked you.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi PeterM,
Thank you, I appreciate your input. I had the same idea, but the student books I've checked don't mention this option. They only state that if you report what someone said very soon after they said it, you don't need to change the tense. I wonder why these student books don't make it clear. It would help teachers and students alike, so I'm really grateful you helped clarify this.
I was wondering how a SUBJECT QUESTION in direct speech is changed, (A) or (B) is correct?
direct speech: "Who is her best friend?" they asked.
indirect speech:
(A) They asked who her best friend was. --> I'm following the rule: S then V.
(B) They asked who was her best friend. --> I'm not following the rule, but I feel (B) sounds good although I don't know why I feel that way.
Thanks for your help.
Hello hangng89,
In reported questions we do not invert the word order as we do in normal questions. It does not matter if it is a subject question or an object question. The correct form here is (A) - ...who her best friend was.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you very much.
Can I also ask this (I'm still a bit confused)?
I think it's correct to write the reported question: (A) She wanted to know which planet was the closest to the sun.
But is it grammatically correct if I write: (B) She wanted to know which was the closest planet to the sun. Because it seems similar to the "... who was her best friend" that you just said to be incorrect.