Language: grammar and vocabulary
Reported questions and commands
Report a question, a request and a command, using the right reporting verb and word order.
Reporting a statement is the easy case. Questions and commands need more than a tense shift, because their shape has to change too. A question stops being a question, and a command turns into an infinitive.
Choose the reporting verb first
Said for a statement. Asked for a question. Told or ordered for a command. Requested for a polite request. The verb you pick tells the reader what kind of thing was spoken, which is work the speech marks used to do.
A reported question loses its question shape
"What do you want?" becomes: He asked what I wanted. The helping verb "do" disappears, the subject goes before the verb, and the question mark goes. Never "He asked what did I want".
Yes-or-no questions need if or whether
"Have you eaten?" has no question word to reuse, so borrow one: She asked if I had eaten. Whether works just as well.
A command becomes "to" plus the verb
"Wait outside" becomes: He told me to wait outside. For a negative command, put not in front of to: He told us not to touch the wires.
Worked example
Report this: "Why are you late?" the teacher asked.
It is a question, so the reporting verb is asked.
Said would leave the reader guessing that a question had been put.
Try it together
Let us report one question together.
The spoken words are: "Where are you going?" she asked.
1.First the reporting verb. We do not use "said" for a question. Write the word we use instead.
Have a go
Report this: "Have you finished?" he asked.
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.