Reported Questions — English Grammar Exercises
She said, he told me — master indirect speech
Reported Questions: Structure and Word Order
Reported questions are consistently among the highest-error structures in learner corpora. The core difficulty is that English learners must abandon question word order — inverted subject and auxiliary — and replace it with normal declarative order. For yes/no questions, 'if' or 'whether' introduces the reported clause: 'Are you ready?' → 'She asked if I was ready.' For wh-questions, the question word is kept but the auxiliary 'do/does/did' is dropped and the subject precedes the verb: 'Where do you live?' → 'She asked where I lived.' Tense backshift applies in both cases, and the sentence ends with a full stop rather than a question mark. The verb 'asked' is most common, but 'wondered', 'wanted to know', and 'enquired' also introduce reported questions.
"Are you coming?" → He asked if I was coming.
"What is your name?" → She asked me what my name was.
"How long have you been waiting?" → He asked how long I had been waiting.
Frequently Asked Questions
What tenses change in reported speech?
Every tense shifts one step back in time: present simple becomes past simple ('I am tired' → 'she said she was tired'), present continuous becomes past continuous, present perfect becomes past perfect, and will becomes would. Past perfect does not change — it is already as far back as possible. Modals also shift: can → could, may → might, must → had to, shall → would. Modals that are already past (could, would, might, should) remain unchanged.
What is the difference between say and tell in reported speech?
'Tell' always requires a direct person object: 'told me', 'told her', 'told them'. You cannot say 'he told that' — it must be 'he told me that'. 'Say' does not take a direct person object: 'he said that'. If you add a person with 'say', use 'to': 'he said to me that'. Additionally, 'tell' is required in fixed expressions: tell the truth, tell a lie, tell a story, tell the time. For fixed expressions with greetings — say hello, say goodbye, say sorry — 'say' is always used.
How do reported questions work?
Reported questions do not use question word order or auxiliaries like do/does/did. They follow normal statement word order with tense backshift. For yes/no questions, introduce the reported question with 'if' or 'whether': 'Are you coming?' → 'She asked if I was coming.' For wh-questions, keep the question word and use normal order: 'Where do you live?' → 'She asked where I lived.' No question mark is used in reported questions.
Which time and place words change in reported speech?
Time and place words shift to reflect the new perspective. Today → that day, tomorrow → the next day / the following day, yesterday → the day before / the previous day, now → then, here → there, ago → before, this → that, these → those, last week → the week before, next month → the following month. Not every sentence requires these changes — if you are reporting something immediately or if the context has not changed, some shifts may be unnecessary.