Reported speech: questions

Do you know how to report a question that somebody asked? Enhance your knowledge with a reported speech lesson given below and the grammar explanation to guide you better.

Look at these examples to see how we can tell someone what another person asked.

• Direct speech: 'Are you coming to the party?' he asked.

Indirect speech: He asked me if I was coming to the party.

• Direct speech: 'What time does the meeting start?' she asked.

Indirect speech: She asked me what time the meeting started.

• Direct speech: 'Will you help me with this project?' he said.

Indirect speech: He asked me to help him with the project.

Grammar explanation - Reported speech: questions

A reported question is when we tell someone what another person asked. To do this, we can use direct speech or indirect speech.

• Direct speech: 'Are you enjoying the new project?' he asked.

• Indirect speech: He asked me if I was enjoying the new project.

In indirect speech, we change the question structure (e.g., Are you enjoying) to a statement structure (e.g., I am enjoying).

We also often make changes to the tenses and other words in the same way as for reported statements (e.g., have done → had done, today → that day). You can learn about these changes on the Reported speech 1 – statements page.

1. Yes/no questions

In yes/no questions, we use if or whether to report the question. If is more common.

• 'Will you attend the meeting tomorrow?'

He asked me if I would attend the meeting tomorrow.

• 'Have you seen the latest report?'

She asked us whether we had seen the latest report.

2. Questions with a question word

In what, where, why, who, when, or how questions, we use the question word to report the question.

• 'Why is the project delayed?'

He asked me why the project was delayed.

• 'Who are you meeting with?'

She asked whom I was meeting with.

3. Reporting verbs

The most common reporting verb for questions is ask, but we can also use verbs like enquire, want to know, or wonder.

• 'Did you receive the email?'

She wanted to know if I had received the email.

• 'When is the presentation due?'

He wondered when the presentation was due.

4. Offers, requests, and suggestions

If the question is making an offer, request, or suggestion, we can use a specific verb pattern instead, for example, offer + infinitive, ask + infinitive, or suggest + ing.

• 'Can I help you with that?'

He offered to help me with that.

• 'Could you send me the details, please?'

She asked me to send her the details.

• 'Why don’t we start early tomorrow?'

She suggested starting early tomorrow.

Try another grammar lesson