Reported questions

Reported questions have a different word order from direct questions. They use the same word order as affirmative sentences:

Verb + subject (direct question) : subject + verb (reported question).

• "What's your name?" he asked. : He asked (her) what her name was.

We do not use do/did/does in reported questions.

• "Do you recognize the suspect?" : They asked if she recognized the suspect.

If a direct question uses question words ( for example who, why, when, how, what) we repeat the question word in the reported question.

• "When will you finish the book?" : He asked (her) when she would finisk the book.

If a direct question does not use question words (who, why, when, how, what), we use if or whether in the reported question.

• "Can I see your driving licence?" : The detective asked him if/whether she could see his driving licence.

REMEMBER!

We do not use question marks (?) in reported speech.

• "What are you doing?" : They asked us what we were doing.