Before you read about reported questions, make sure you know how to make simple reported statements. Then, when you have finished looking at this lesson, try these reported question practice exercises.

Direct and reported questions

She asked if I liked her trousers (reported questions).

A direct question is a normal question, when you want an answer. For example:

"Do you like my new trousers?" asked Susan.

Reported (or indirect) questions are when we tell someone about the question. However, it isn't a question now so the word order is different.

Susan asked me if I liked her new trousers.

Making reported questions

A reported question uses a question word (e.g. who, how often) with normal sentence word order (subject + verb). If the question doesn't begin with a question word, we use 'if' or 'whether'.

  Question Subject Verb
She asked
She wondered
why I hadn't finished.
when they would go.
if we understood.

Don't forget, you also need to change the tenses, people, places etc. Look at the lesson for reported speech if you can't remember these.

 

Now try these reported question practice exercises.