English Grammar: Reported Speech (2) – Indirect Questions.

Convert the phrases below into reported speech.

1) “Could you tell me where the tomatoes are, please?,” he asked

He asked _______________________________________

2) “What does this word mean?,” my friend asked.

My friend asked ______________________________________

3) “Do you know where Lisa lives?,” asked George.

______________________________________________

Answers:

1) “Could you tell me where the tomatoes are, please?,” he asked.

He asked me if I could tell him where the tomatoes were.

2) “What does this word mean?,” my friend asked.

My friend asked me what that word meant.

3) “Do you know where Lisa lives?,” asked George.

George asked if I knew where Lisa lived.

Explanation:

The first thing that we have to remember is that when reported speech is used, the verb goes back a tense.

(La primera cosa que debemos recordar es que cuando utilizamos el estilo indirecto, el verbo pasa a un tiempo anterior)

If it is an indirect question, we have to be aware of a couple of points:

(Si es un pregunta indirecta, tenemos que estar atentos a un par te puntos:)

1) Now the word order is inverted

(Ahora el orden de las palabras se invierte)

Where is your friend? → He asked me where my friend was.

2) If the phrase starts with words such as:

(Si la frase empieza con palabras como:)

what, when, where, etc..., then these words are used in indirect questions

(qué, cuándo, dónde, etc..., entonces esas palabras se utilizan en las preguntas indirectas)

When does the class start? → She asked me when the class started.

However, if the above words are not, we use IF or WHETHER.

(Sin embargo, si las palabras de arriba no están, utilizamos SI.)

Do you play football? –> He asked if I played football.