1. Reported Speech Indirect Questions

2. We use indirect questions when we want to be more polite or tentative (hesitant or exploratory). We use indirect questions when we are starting a conversation with someone we don’t know or when we are asking a personal question.

3. Word Order in Indirect Questions The word order is the same as in positive or negative sentences: Do you know what time the film begins? She asked me if / whether I was willing to travel abroad. As you can see depending on the beginning you will write the question mark or not.

4. Types of Indirect Questions There are two types of indirect questions: –Yes/ No questions, which are reported by means of IF/WHETHER: “Do you have a driving licence?” She asked (me) if / whether I had a driving licence. –Wh- questions, which are reported by means of the question word: “Why did you apply for the job?” She asked (me) why I had applied for the job.

5. Tense Changes In indirect questions, tense changes if the introductory verb is in the past tense: The police officer said to us, “Where are you going?” The police officer asked us where we were going (No question mark). When we are reporting polite questions is when we don’t generally change the tense: “Where is the station?” Could you tell me where the station is? (Question mark).

6. Tense changes (backshift) Direct Speech Present Simple Present Continuous Past Simple Past Continuous Present Perfect Past perfect Will/Can/May Must Indirect/Reported S Past Simple Past Continuous Past Simple/Past Perfect Past Cont./Past perfect Cont. Past Perfect Would/Could/Might Must/Had to

7. Time and Place Changes Direct Speech Here This/These This-That (pronouns) Now Yesterday Tomorrow Last week Next week Ago (a year ago) Today The day before yesterday The day after tomorrow Indirect/Reported Speech There That/Those (The) It Then/At that time The day before-The previous day The day after/the following day The week before/the previous week The week after/The following week Before-a year before That day Two days before In two days’ time