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5-1 Indirect Questions

Does anyone know whose shoes these are?

Question Words

What / Which / Whose + Noun

When making questions, students often get confused with the words, what, which, and whose.

What, which, and whose are usually used with nouns.
Which and what are often both possible, with little difference in meaning.
Which is preferred when the speaker is thinking of a limited number of choices.
Whose is used when asking about possession.

What
- What kind of pasta did you eat?
- What size pants will you buy?
- What type of movies do you like?
Which
- Which computer here is yours?
- Which street should I take: Main or Pender?
- Which country are you from: Canada or the USA?
Whose
- Whose house do you live in?
- Whose coat is that?
- Whose glasses are these?

How + Adjective / Adverb

How can be used with adjectives and adverbs:

How far is Whistler from Vancouver?

How much did you pay?

How many times have you flown on an airplane?

How often do you drink?

How tall are you?

How heavy is your bag?

How fast can you run?

How many brothers and sisters do you have?

Direct & Indirect Questions

We use indirect questions to make questions sound softer or more polite:

Direct Question: What time is it?
Indirect Question: Could you please tell me what time it is?

Form

When we use this grammar, we do not use inversion. This means we do not place the auxiliary verb before the subject.

In fact, the word order of an indirect question is the same as in positive sentences:

Example #1

Direct Question:
auxiliary verb + subject
- Where is he going?
Indirect Question:
subject + auxiliary verb
- Do you know where he is going?
Positive Sentence:
subject + auxiliary verb
- He is going to the bathroom.

Example #2

Direct Question:
auxiliary verb + subject
- What languages can she speak?
Indirect Question:
subject + auxiliary verb
- Do you have any idea what languages she can speak?
Positive Sentence:
subject + auxiliary verb
- She can speak English and Spanish.

Example #3

Direct Question:
auxiliary verb + subject
- What country was Jack born in?
Indirect Question:
subject + auxiliary verb
- Do you happen to know what country Jack was born in?
Positive Sentence:
subject + auxiliary verb
- Jack was born in Austria.

In Past Simple and Present Simple questions, did, do, and does appear in direct questions. Just like positive sentences, indirect questions do not need these auxiliaries:

Example #1

Direct Question:
- Where does he live?
Indirect Question:
- Could you tell me where he lives?
Positive Sentence:
- He lives in North Vancouver.

Example #2

Direct Question:
- When did Mary call?
Indirect Question:
- Do you know when Mary called?
Positive Sentence:
- Mary called at around 11 AM.

Example #3

Direct Question:
- Where do you do your homework?
Indirect Question:
- Can you tell me where you do your homework?
Positive Sentence:
- You do your homework at home.

The last example above may be confusing as do is also the main verb of the sentence. Remember, in indirect questions or positive sentences, we do not need do, does or did as auxiliary verbs. Do not forget that do can be used as a main verb:

Do you know what James does for a living?

Could you please explain to me why you did that?

I'm not sure when I'll do my laundry.

Indirect Questions Using If / Whether

If there is no question word in your question like when, where, who, what, why, etc., it is because the question is a "yes" or "no" question. For these questions, we use if or whether in indirect questions: