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Indirect Questions: N The Street: Yes

This document discusses indirect questions in English and how they differ from direct questions. Indirect questions are more polite when asking for help or information from someone you don't know well. They begin with phrases like "Could you tell me..." or "Do you know..." instead of inverting the subject and verb like in direct questions. Indirect questions maintain the normal word order of statements. They are very common in English, especially when speaking to strangers.

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46 views

Indirect Questions: N The Street: Yes

This document discusses indirect questions in English and how they differ from direct questions. Indirect questions are more polite when asking for help or information from someone you don't know well. They begin with phrases like "Could you tell me..." or "Do you know..." instead of inverting the subject and verb like in direct questions. Indirect questions maintain the normal word order of statements. They are very common in English, especially when speaking to strangers.

Uploaded by

Maria
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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INDIRECT n the street: Yes,

QUESTIONS
HAVE A
LOOK AT
THIS
CONVERSATI
ON.

Me:
Could
you tell
me where
the
nearest
station is?
Person in
the street:

along that
road on
the right.
: Thank
you. And
do you
know if
there's a
supermar
ket near
here?
P
e
r
s
o
n

i
t to the station. Me: Thank you
very much for your help.

I use indirect questions when I'm asking for help in the street,
because they are very polite. Indirect questions start with a
phrase like 'could you tell me...' or 'do you know...'. For
example:

Direct question: Where is the bank?

Indirect question: Could you tell me where the bank is?

Notice that in the indirect question I put the verb ('is') after the
subject ('the bank'), in the same way as I do with a normal
positive sentence ('the bank is over there'), but in the direct
question I put the verb 'is' before the subject 'the bank'. This is
called inversion, and it is used to make direct questions in
many verb tenses in English, but we don't use inversion in
indirect questions. Indirect questions are a way of being polite.
They are very, very common in English, especially when
you're talking to someone you don't know.

t
'Yes / No' Questions
h
To make an indirect 'yes / no' question, we use 'if' and the word
e
order of a normal
r positive sentence.
e 'Yes / no' questions for tenses with inversion:
'
s

o
n
e

n
e
x
Verb Tense Direct Question Indirect question
Indirect Question

Present simple with 'be' Is he Spanish?


Can you tell me if he is Spanish?

Is the restaurant Can you tell me if the restaurant is


Present continuous closing? closing?

Past continuous Was he late for the Can you tell me if he was late for
meeting? the meeting

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