Podcast 19 - B1/B2 IELTS 5 indirect questions

The structure of indirect questions

Can you tell me what time the train arrives?

Hello, and today, I'm going to talk to you about indirect questions. In fact, I'm going to talk to you about direct questions as well.

So what is a direct question? Well, an example is,

What is the time, please?

Or, When does the train arrive?

Now, an indirect question has a little phrase before the direct question. Something like,

Could you tell me what the time is, please?

Do you know when the train arrives?

Would you mind telling me what the price is?

Now, one thing we should notice about indirect questions is that the structure is a little different in the second clause, that's the second part of the sentence. So, for example, that direct question, what is the time, please? becomes Could you tell me what the time is, please?

And the direct question, when does the train arrive? becomes Would you mind telling me when the train arrives?

So just to compare that, that's,

What is the time? - Could you tell me what the time is?

When does the train arrive? - Could you tell me when the train arrives?

So what happens is that in the second part of the indirect question, there is no inversion - that's changing the subject with the auxiliary verb.

What is the time? - what the time is?

Or there's no auxiliary do. Or does or did.

When does the train arrive? - When the train arrives?

Why do we use indirect questions?

Okay,so why do we use indirect questions? Well, in British English, especially, it sounds more polite if the question is rather longer.

Where's the train station?

That direct question can sound too direct, really, or even a little impolite. Or perhaps rude. But if we're asking someone in the street, where the train station is, and we use an indirect question, then it sounds much more polite and respectful.

Would you mind telling me where the train station is, please?

I sometimes tell my students that the longer the sentence, the more polite it sounds! And it's true to a certain extent. The indirect questions are longer than the direct questions and therefore they sound more respectful. Now, the other thing is that when you're studying indirect questions for an exam, in a grammar book, we also include phrases which are not really questions. So we can say something like,

I wonder if you could help me with my English homework.

Now this isn't a question at all. But we still classify it as an indirect question.

We were thinking whether you would like to join us for dinner tonight.

That's not a question either. But we classify it as an indirect question. So here, then there's no inversion whatsoever. Because there was no question in the first part, or the second part of the phrase or the sentence.

I'd be grateful. If you could let me know, when the report will be ready.

Golden rule about indirect question structure

So, the rule to remember about the structure of the indirect question is that in each question, there can be no more than one inversion. So, the inversion in an indirect question such as this one,

Would you mind telling me where the train station is please?

The inversion or the question part is the would you mind telling me?

Confusing cases

Now, there are some confusing cases perhaps, where the direct question and the second part of the indirect question are exactly the same. And that happens, when we use questions that do not have inversion. For example:

Who told you that?

Here, there is no inversion because who represents the subject.

Which glass broke?

Which here refers to the subject, so there is no inversion.

What could have happened?

What is the subject of the question and so there is no inversion. So if we make indirect questions of these direct questions, there is no change to the structure.

I wonder if you could tell me who told you that.

I'd be grateful if you could tell me which glass broke.

I wonder what could have happened.

A short test on indirect questions

I'm going to give you a direct question and I would like you to make it into an indirect question. For example.

Q. Where is the bus station? - A. Could you tell me where the bus station is? [Your answer for the first part of the indirect question may be different - the important part is the structure of the second half of the question.]

Number one.

Q. When do the shops close? - A. Would you let me know when the shops close?

Number two.

Q. Why was the train late? - A. Do you know why the train was late?

Number three.

Q. How long does it take? - A. I'd like to know how long it takes.

Okay, that's the end of my little session on indirect questions. That's all from me for now. So thank you very much. Until next time, Bye Bye.

Exercises on indirect questions...