Structures of reported questions
| Structure of reported questions | |
| direct speech | Is it better to wait? |
| reported question | She asked if it was better to wait. |
| direct speech | Have you been to Spain? |
| reported question | He asked if I’d (I had) been to Spain. |
| Reported questions - common mistakes | ||
| Common mistakes | Correct version | Why? |
| She asked me why did I work so much. | She asked me why I worked so much. | The word order in reported questions is: subject + verb. |
| She asked me it was raining. | She asked me if it was raining. | Yes-no questions (closed questions) begin with if when they become reported questions. |
| She asked me if I have been to Bristol? She asked me what I do for a living. |
She asked me if I had been to Bristol. She asked me what I did for a living. |
If the reporting verb (in this case ask) is in the past tense, we usually change the tense of the verb which follows: I am ⇒ I was I can ⇒ I could have been ⇒ had been was ⇒ had been will ⇒ would can ⇒ could |