Reported Speech II
Unit 3
4. Reported questions, directives and exclamations
We have been working with indirect statements; but we need to bear in mind that all
sentence types (questions, directives, exclamations) may be turned into indirect speech.
4.1. Reported questions
A reported question is called an indirect question. Reported questions use normal word
order and do not have question marks. We need to distinguish two types of questions: yes-
no questions and wh-questions.
Wh-questions
To report a wh- question, the following changes are necessary. Tenses, pronouns,
possessive adjectives, and place/time adverbs change as in statements. The interrogative
form of the verb changes to the affirmative form, the question mark is omitted. As we can
observe, the wh-particle is repeated at the beginning of the reported clause:
She said, “Where does he live?” She asked where he lived.
If the reporting verb is say, it must be changed to a verb of inquiry (ask, inquire,
wonder, query, want to know…):
“What do you want?” He asked (me) what I wanted.
Yes-no questions
They allow an affirmative or negative reply. Apart from the usual adjustments
concerning tense forms and deictics, when we turn direct yes-no questions into indirect
speech we need to introduce if or whether (He asked if/whether I was ready). An if clause is
more frequent, a whether clause can be used to emphasize that a choice has to be made.
Alternative questions are also reported by using whether.
“Do you want to go by car or by train?” He asked whether I wanted to go by car or...
Questions beginning with shall I/we? in indirect speech.
These questions can be of four types: requests for information; requests for instructions
or advice; offers; suggestions.
The first type “Shall I see you again?” follow the ordinary rule about shall/will:He
wondered if he would see them again. Requests for instructions or advice are reported by
should: “What shall I do?” ~ He asked what he should do.
Offers can be reported by using the verb offer in the reporting clause: “Shall I bring you
some tea?” ~ He offered to bring me some tea. Accordingly, suggestions could be reported
by using suggest in the reporting clause:“Shall we dance at the disco?, Marc said ~ Marc
suggested dancing at the disco/that we (should) dance…
