Lesson 6: Communicating with Signs Grammar Section -Indirect Question- Kate Chao

Outline Warm up Explain the Grammatical Rule Practice Group Work

Think about It Consider the following situation: You are talking to a man at a meeting that you have never met. However, you know his name and you both know a colleague named Jack. You turn to him and ask: Where is Jack? The man seems a little bothered and says he doesn't know. He isn't very friendly. You wonder why he seems bothered...

Why? Direct questions are often considered rude when speaking to strangers. To be more polite we often use indirect question forms. Indirect questions serve the same purpose as direct questions, but are considered more formal.

Indirect Question Introductory phrase + question word (what, when, where, why, which…) +subordinate clause (positive sentence ) When using an indirect question, use an introductory phrase followed by the question itself in positive sentence structure.

Indirect Question Here are some of the most common phrases used for asking indirect questions. Do you know … ? Can you tell me … ? Do you happen to know ...? I wonder / was wondering …. I have no idea ... I'm not sure ... I'd like to know ...

Examples For example: 1.- Direct question Where's the department store? -Indirect question Could you tell me where the department store is? 2. - Direct question What's his name? Do you know what his name is? -

1.Where can I buy my favorite pretzels? 2.What are you talking about? 1.I was wondering … where I can buy my favorite pretzels. 2.I don’t know… what you are talking about.

3.Why does he look so funny? 3. I'd like to know… why he looks so funny.

4.When will this boring meeting finish? 4.Can you tell me… when this boring meeting will finish?

Group Work 1.Worksheet 2.Scrumbled Sentences