Indirect question

Indirect questions are one of the three basic structures of reported indirect speech. They are simply the way in which a question (an interrogative sentence) is written down without directly transcribing the speaker's words. When the speaker's words are written down as spoken, inside speech marks, it is also reported speech - but direct speech.

Indirect questions echo the normal structure of questions in normal speech. Both main forms of direct question (wh-questions and yes-no questions) are reported (in indirect speech) by the use of a wh-word, and backshifting of tense is possible - as in indirect statements. Indirect questions, being the Object of a report and therefore part of a statement, have no question mark. An indirect question begins with a reporting clause and continues with a wh-word - usually the same as the wh-word in the original direct question being reported.

The following examples of direct wh-questions followed by their reported versions as indirect wh-questions may show how it is done.

• "What time is it?" may become I asked you what time it was OR I asked you when it was.
• "Where are you going?" he said becomes He asked where she was going.
• "I ask myself how such a thing can happen" becomes I wondered how such a thing could happen.
• "I ask myself how such a thing could happen" becomes I wondered how such a thing could have happened.
• "What's this?" becomes He asked her what it was.
• "Who did you give it to?" [informal] becomes She asked him to whom he had given it. [More formal - see Who - whom.]

In reported yes-no questions the usual wh-word to link the reporting clause to the indirect question is whether, or, less formally, if. The yes-no question "Are you sure?" is indirectly reported as

She asked him whether he was sure OR (less formally) She asked him if he was sure. (The verb in the speech is backshifted to the past was from the present are because the reporting verb asked is in the past.)

In formal English one can use the subjunctive mood in this question, as there is an element of uncertainty about which answer is expected: She asked him whether he were sure. The use of if is not so consistent with this sophisticated grammar).