Meaning & use
indirect question
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Meanings
nouncountable
A question put inside another sentence in a polite or reported way, using normal word order instead of question order.
Grammar: Countable: say 'an indirect question' or 'indirect questions'. Unlike a direct question, the subject comes before the verb.
Patterns
- ask an indirect question
- an indirect question about something
- use an indirect question to be polite
'Could you tell me where the station is?' is an indirect question.
She turned her direct question into an indirect question so it sounded less pushy.
In an indirect question we say 'I wonder what time it starts', not 'what time does it start'.
nouncountable
A reported question that repeats what someone asked, without quotation marks and usually with a changed tense or pronoun.
Grammar: Often introduced by ask, wonder, want to know or a phrase like 'Do you know...'. No question mark unless the whole sentence is a question.
Patterns
- ask an indirect question
- wonder + indirect question
- Do you know + indirect question
He asked me whether I had finished the report.
Do you know if the museum opens on Mondays?
They wanted to know how long the journey would take.
Word forms
| plural | indirect questions |
|---|
Common combinations
- ask an indirect question
- The interviewer asked an indirect question about my previous salary.
- turn something into an indirect question
- Turn 'Where are you going?' into an indirect question: 'Could you tell me where you are going?'
- a polite indirect question
- 'I was wondering if you could help me' is a polite indirect question.
- report an indirect question
- When you report an indirect question, the tense usually moves back one step.
- an indirect question with if or whether
- Use if or whether in an indirect question when there is no question word.
Synonyms and how they differ
- reported question
- Nearly the same, but it stresses that you are repeating someone else's words rather than being polite.
- embedded question
- A more technical term used in grammar books for the same structure inside a larger sentence.
Opposites
Word family
- indirectly adverb
- In a way that is not direct; 'She asked indirectly about the job.'
- indirectness noun
- The quality of not saying something in a plain, direct way.
Commonly confused: indirect question or direct question? indirect question or rhetorical question?
indirect question vs direct question
A direct question stands alone with question word order and a question mark: 'Where is the station?' An indirect question hides the question inside another sentence: 'Could you tell me where the station is?'
indirect question vs rhetorical question
A rhetorical question is asked for effect, not for information, and keeps direct question order; an indirect question is a grammatical structure, not a style of asking.
Practice
Which sentence is a correct indirect question?
Choose one answer.
An indirect question uses statement word order, so the subject 'the bank' comes before the verb 'is'. Option 0 keeps question order, option 2 is a fragment with no main clause, and option 3 wrongly adds 'does'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “indirect question”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.