Reported speech: questions

Do you know how to report a question that somebody asked? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.

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: Grammar B1-B2: Reported speech 2: 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: Grammar B1-B2: Reported speech 2: 2

Try another grammar lesson

Language level

B1 Intermediate

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Please can I know the reported speech form of "what was tge last book you read?" ,,,it is nessesary please 🥺

Hello Yazanabdo,

It depends on who asked, but it would be something like 'They asked me what the last book I read was'.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Hello, everyone.
I would like to ask a question that is in my exercise book.
"Is it right time to leave?"
I transform this question into reported speech as below:
"Martin asked us if it was the right time to left." My question is that it is 'leave' or 'left' at the end of the sentence? I am confused about the answer. I think it is 'left' but the correct answer is shown as 'leave' in the book. Thanks for your kind answer. Take care.

Hi knownman,

It should be 'leave'. It's an infinitive phrase ('to leave'), so this doesn't change for tense.

Best wishes :)

Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team

Hello everyone,
I was thinking the other day and came across this sentence and I'd appreciate if someone would help me with this.
Direct Questions: "Does she often go to the cinema?"

Now what would be the reported question if we asked this question from a woman?

I asked her if she often went to the cinema.

But the "her" and the "she" does not refer to the same person. Wouldn't that cause some confusion?

Hi TheRealDoctor,

Yes, it may be confusing. It would be better to use the names (if you know them) of one or both people, or some other description to make clear which person you are referring to. For example:

- I asked her if Maria often went to the cinema.
- I asked Kate if Maria often went to the cinema.
- I asked her if her sister often went to the cinema.

I hope that helps :)

Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team

Hello everyone! I would like to check if those sentences are correct? Nabila wants to know what the time of next flight to Boston is. She says she is tired of dealing with unreliable suppliers. Thank you so much in advance!

Hello Natasa Tanasa,

The second sentence is fine. The first sentence needs an article before 'next':

Nabila wants to know what the time of the next flight to Boston is.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello! Could you help me to report such sentence "Shall we go to the cinema?" Is it OK to say He asked if we should go to the cinema? Or is should old here and it's better to say He asked if they would go to the cinema.

Hi katyunechka1,

I wouldn't use should here. That's because in the original sentence, when the speaker says Shall we ... , the speaker is inviting you to go to the cinema. But should doesn't have that 'inviting' meaning, i.e. we can't use should to make invitations. If you say He asked if we should go to the cinema?, it means he asked whether going to the cinema is a good thing, or the right thing to do (which is different from the meaning of the original sentence).

I suggest using a different reporting verb to show the meaning of inviting. For example:

He invited us to go to the cinema.
He suggested that we go to the cinema.
He suggested going to the cinema.

Does that make sense?

Jonathan