Indirect Questions en Ingles – Curso intermedio
Indirect Questions en Ingles — Lesson 9 INTERMEDIATE
Curso INTERMEDIO: GRAMMAR – GRAMATICA
Bienvenidos a InglesTotal,
LECCION CON AUDIO: Click en el ícono de PLAY en el reproductor
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | TuneIn | RSS
Gracias por visitar el mejor portal para aprender inglés gratis. Hoy les enseñaremos como usar los Indirect Questions. Esta lección incluye audio que pueden encontrar al comienzo de esta publicación seguida por la clase escrita en la parte inferior.
Recuerden que en InglesTotal ofrecemos cursos gratis de conversación ,pronunciación, vocabulario, gramática y redacción. No se pierdan ninguna clase sigan nuestras redes sociales en Facebook, Telegram y Twitter. También visiten nuestra otra página donde les entregamos un curso de inglés donde s¡ustedes pueden participar mandando sus audios. Más información aquí: www.inglesaudio.com. Puede también seguir todos nuestros audios en SPOTIFY (enlace aquí) y los que quieran compararme un café o donar para que esta pagina siga adelante pueden hacerlo usando este vinculo.
Si quieren clases privadas por Skype o Zoom con el profesor Carlos pueden hacerlo agregando el número +51997746014 al Whatsapp o por correro a contacto@inglestotal.com
-
Indirect Questions
First let’s look at this conversation
Me: Excuse me. Could you tell me where the bus stop is?
Person in the street: Sure. It’s next to that resraurant.
Me: Thank you. And do you know if there’s a mall near here?
Person in the street: Yes, there’s one next to the museum.
Me: Thank you very much for your help.
Indirect questions start with a phrase like ‘could you tell me…’ or ‘do you know…’.
For example:
Direct question: Where is the restaurant?
Indirect question: Could you tell me where the restaurant is?
Notice that in the indirect question I put the verb (‘is’) after the subject (‘the restaurant’), in the same way as I do with a normal positive sentence (‘the bank is over there’), but in the direct question I put the verb ‘is’ before the subject ‘the restaurant’.
USE:
Indirect questions are a way of being polite. They are very, very common in English, especially when you’re talking to someone you don’t know.
NOTA DEL PROFESOR:
Noten que el “Indirect Question” se puede entender como una pregunta dentro de otra pregunta. La regla es que solo la pregunta principal va en forma de pregunta y la otra va en forma de sujeto + verbo + complemento. Es así como la pregunta “Can you tell me where the bathroom is?” a muchos le suena incorrecto por la terminiación “where the bathroom is?” La pregunta aislada si seria “Where is the bathroom?” pero esta esta anidada dento de la pregunta “Can you tell me?” y por ende no pueden ir las dos en forma de pregunta.
-
INDIRECT QUESTIONS WITH ‘Yes / No’ Questions
When we want to make an indirect ‘yes / no’ question, we use ‘if’ and the word order of a normal positive sentence. A yes / no question is a question without a QUESTION WORD (Where, What, when, how etc).
NOTA DEL PROFESOR:
Para formar preguntas indirectas de “Yes / no questions” (que son preguntas sin interrogativos como Where, What, Who) se tiene que agregar la palabra IF y de ahí seguir la regla mencionada S+V+C
EXAMPLES / EJEMPLOS:
‘Yes / no’ questions for tenses:
Verb Tense | Direct Question | Indirect Question |
Present simple with ‘be’ | Is he American? | Can you tell me if he is American? |
Present continuous | Is the restaurant opening now? | Can you tell me if the restaurant is opening now? |
Past simple with ‘be’ | Was he late for the meeting? | Can you tell me if he was late for the meeting? |
Past continuous | Were you listening to music last night | Can you tell me if you were listening to music late last night? |
Present perfect | Has Lucy been to Ecuador? | Can you tell me if Lucy has been to Ecuador? |
Present perfect continuous | Has she been living here long? | Can you tell me if she has been living here long? |
Past perfect | Had she found this job when she moved here? | Can you tell me if she had found this job when she moved here? |
Past perfect continuous | Had she been living here long when she met you? | Can you tell me if she had been living here long when she met you? |
Future simple with ‘will’ | Will she start her new job next week? | Can you tell me if she will start her new job next week? |
Future simple with ‘going to’ | Is it going to snow later? | Can you tell me if it is going to snow later? |
Future continuous | Will Lisa be having lunch with boss later? | Can you tell me if Lisa will be having lunch with boss later? |
Future perfect | Will he have finished the report by tonight? | Can you tell me if he will have finished the report by tonight? |
Future perfect continuous | Will he have been studying French for twenty years when he retires? | Can you tell me if he will have been studying French for twenty years when he retires? |
Modal verbs | Should we go now? | Can you tell me if we should go now? |
‘Yes / no’ questions with tenses that use ‘do / does / did’:
Sometimes you want to make an indirect question using the present simple of any verb except ‘be’ or the past simple of any verb except ‘be’. These tense make direct questions by using ‘do / does / did’. When we want to make indirect ‘yes / no’ questions using these tenses, we need ‘if’ and we don’t need ‘do / does / did’.
Verb Tense | Direct Question | Indirect Question |
Present simple with any verb except ‘be’ | Does David work in Paris? | Can you tell me if David works in Paris? |
Past simple with any verb except ‘be’ | Did Linda call John yesterday? | Can you tell me if Linda called John yesterday? |
‘Wh’ Questions
In the same way as with reported ‘wh’ questions, we use the question word and the word order of a normal positive sentence to make indirect ‘wh’ questions. We don’t need to use inversion. Again, we also don’t usually need to ‘backshift’ (change the tense of the verb) as we do with reported questions.
To change a direct question to an indirect question for tenses that make questions using inversion, you just add ‘if’ and change the word order back to a normal positive sentence.
‘Wh’ questions for tenses:
Verb Tense | Direct Question | Indirect Question |
Present simple with ‘be’ | Why is he so happy? | Can you tell me why he is so happy? |
Present continuous | When is the restaurant opening? | Can you tell me when the restaurant is opening? |
Past simple with ‘be’ | Why was he late for the meeting? | Can you tell me why he was late for the meeting? |
Past continuous | What were you doing at 3pm? | Can you tell me what you were doing at 3pm? |
Present perfect | Where has Lucy been? | Can you tell me where Lucy has been? |
Present perfect continuous | How long has she been living here? | Can you tell me how long she has been living here? |
Past perfect | Why had she quit her job before she moved here? | Can you tell me why she had quit her job before she moved here? |
Past perfect continuous | How long had she been living here when she met you? | Can you tell me how long she had been living here when she met you? |
Future simple with ‘will’ | When will she start her new job? | Can you tell me when she will start her new job? |
Future simple with ‘going to’ | When is it going to snow? | Can you tell me when it is going to snow? |
Future continuous | What time will Lisa be meeting her boss? | Can you tell me what time Lisa will be meeting her boss? |
Future perfect | When will he have finished the report? | Can you tell me when he will have finished the report? |
Future perfect continuous | How long will he have been studying French when he retires? | Can you tell me how long he will have been studying French when he retires? |
Modal verbs | What should we go now? | Can you tell me what we should go now? |
‘Wh’ questions for tenses with ‘do / does / did’:
Sometimes you want to make an indirect ‘wh’ question using the present simple of any verb except ‘be’ or the past simple of any verb except ‘be’. Usually these tenses make questions by using ‘do / does / did’. However, when we want to make indirect ‘wh’ questions using these tenses, we don’t need ‘do / does / did’. Instead, we use a question word and then normal positive sentence word order.
Verb Tense | Direct Question | Indirect Question |
Present simple with any verb except ‘be’ | Where does David work? | Can you tell me where David works? |
Past simple with any verb except ‘be’ | Why did Linda call John yesterday? | Can you tell me why Linda called John yesterday? |
Les dejamos nuestro menú para que pueda seguir nuestros cursos gratis de inglés en linea.
Básico | Pre intermedio | Intermedio (nuevo) |Conversación | Lectura | Pronunciación |Material y Recursos | Vocabulary
Leave a Reply