There are several ways of asking a question in English and this sometimes poses a problem for those learning English as a second language. You can ask a direct question, such as that do you want? which is easy enough to understand. Indirect questions, on the other hand, use other words to ask the question and may even seem like two questions in one. The reason that some people have difficulty with this concept is that the word order in the sentence is the same as if you were making an affirmative statement. Some examples of such questions are:
- Can you tell me how to do this?
- I wonder what she is doing.
The direct questions for both of these would be:
- How do I do this?
- What is she doing?
There are rules for making questions indirect according to the verb you use. If you are using the verbs do, did or does, you leave out these words in the indirect question. In this way the direct question then do you arrive becomes an you tell when you arrive? If you use a form of the verb to do in asking the question you would not be using correct English grammar in some cases. If you ask a question about when the flight is supposed to arrive for example, you would not say a ould you tell me when the flight does arrive? Instead you would say a an you tell me when the flight arrives?
In questions that require a yes or no answer, you use the words for ther in asking the question indirectly. For example if you want to ask someone if they have seen your dog, you would ask a ould you tell me if you have seen a small black dog?
When you take an online course to help you learn English this concept is fully covered in the course. However, it is not something that you have to be concerned about early in the course as it is part of the more advanced upper intermediate course. By this time you will have a good command of the English language making it easier for you to grasp the instructional part of the lesson.
Basically, this way of asking a question is very formal and polite. It begins with a polite expression and the subject and verb are not inverted as they are in a direct question. You will learn that some of these questions are not questions as such and are more like statements.
When you feel that you do understand the instruction, you can move on to the grammar exercises and finally the quiz on this lesson. If you make mistakes, you can review the instruction and redo the exercises and quiz until you are sure you have a complete grasp of this manner of asking questions in English. You can then listen to many different passages to find examples of how the speaker uses this form of questioning and look for them in the material that you read in English.
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