What indirect questions are and when to use them
An indirect question is a question placed inside another phrase, such as Could you tell me…? or Do you know…? It sounds softer and more polite than a direct question.
- Direct: Where is the station?
- Indirect: Could you tell me where the station is?
Indirect questions are common when you ask a stranger for help, write a formal email, or interview someone, because they feel less abrupt. They also appear after phrases that are not questions, such as I wonder where she lives and I don’t know what time it starts.
The rules to teach first
- Use statement word order. After the question word, the subject comes before the verb: where the station is, not where is the station.
- Remove do, does and did. The tense moves onto the main verb: What time does the film start? becomes Do you know what time the film starts?
- For yes/no questions, add if or whether. Is the museum open? becomes Could you tell me if the museum is open?
- Keep other auxiliaries. Verbs like have, will, can stay, but they follow the subject: Has the manager arrived? becomes Do you know if the manager has arrived?
Punctuation depends on the first part. If the opener is itself a question (Could you tell me…?), the sentence ends with a question mark. If it is a statement (I wonder where she lives), it ends with a full stop.
Common mistakes
- Keeping the auxiliary: Could you tell me where does she work? → where she works.
- Keeping question word order: Do you know what is her name? → what her name is.
- Leaving out if or whether: I wonder did she pass. → I wonder if she passed.
Most learners make these mistakes because the direct-question pattern is strong. Short, repeated practice usually helps more than one long explanation.
Exercises with answers
Exercise 1: Make the question indirect
Use the opener in brackets.
- Where is the station? (Could you tell me…)
- What time does the film start? (Do you know…)
- Is the museum open on Mondays? (Could you tell me…)
- How much does this cost? (Do you know…)
- Has the manager arrived? (Do you know…)
- Why are they late? (Can you tell me…)
Exercise 2: Correct the mistake
- Could you tell me where does he live?
- Do you know what is her name?
- I wonder did she pass.
- Can you tell me how much does it cost?
Exercise 3: Unscramble
- you / me / could / tell / how / the / works / machine
- wondering / if / I / was / you / help / could / me
Answers
Exercise 1
- Could you tell me where the station is?
- Do you know what time the film starts?
- Could you tell me if (or whether) the museum is open on Mondays?
- Do you know how much this costs?
- Do you know if the manager has arrived?
- Can you tell me why they are late?
Exercise 2
- Could you tell me where he lives?
- Do you know what her name is?
- I wonder if (or whether) she passed.
- Can you tell me how much it costs?
Exercise 3
- Could you tell me how the machine works?
- I was wondering if you could help me.
Activities: controlled, then communicative
Start with controlled practice so that learners feel secure about the form, then move to speaking tasks where they use indirect questions for a real purpose.
Controlled practice
- Question strip race. Write direct questions on strips. In pairs, one student picks up a strip, runs back, and the pair writes it as an indirect question with an assigned opener. Check answers together. Accuracy counts as well as speed.
- Gap-fill and unscramble. Use sets like the ones above. Ask learners to add the question mark or full stop as well.
- Opener variety. Give a list of openers (Could you tell me, Do you know, I was wondering if, Would you mind telling me, Can you explain) and require a different one each time.
Communicative practice
- Street interview. Learners imagine they are reporters. Each writes five indirect questions on a topic, then interviews classmates and records the answers.
- Polite requests role-play. Set up two scenes, such as a ticket office and a hotel reception. One student is the customer, the other is the clerk. The customer must use indirect questions.
- Information gap. Give Student A and Student B different timetables or menus with missing details. They fill the gaps by asking each other indirect questions only.
- Board game. Learners roll a dice and move along a board. On each square they turn a direct question card into an indirect one before moving on. A wrong answer sends them back a square.
- Email task. Learners write a short formal email to a school or company asking for information, using at least four indirect questions.
Putting a lesson together
A simple lesson order: (1) present two or three example pairs, direct and indirect; (2) elicit the three rules from the learners; (3) do a controlled exercise; (4) correct common mistakes on the board; (5) run a speaking task such as a role-play; (6) finish with a short error-correction round.
For follow-up practice with word order and structure, try the sentence correction exercises. If learners confuse clause types after these lessons, the independent clause activities can help.