Indirect questions

The Indirect Question

The indirect question is used to report or repeat someone else's or your own question. You've used indirect questions already in my A1-B1 course and you can consider this lesson as a refresher. Take a look at a few examples:

A: Woher kommst du? --- VERB 2ND POSITION
B: Entschuldigung. Das habe ich nicht verstanden. Was hast du gefragt?
A: Ich habe gefragt, woher du kommst* --- VERB END POSITION

Some questions do not start with a W-word but with a verb. Take a look at what you have to do with those:

A: Kommst du heute Abend mit auf die Party?
B: Entschuldigung. Was hast du gefragt?
A: Ich habe gefragt, ob du mit auf die Party kommst*.

*The most important thing to keep in mind is that you put the verb in the indirect question part at the end.

IMPORTANT

Always translate ob with "whether" and never with "if" and you'll make your life a lot easier. You'll get used to it.

IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE

As this kind of grammar is best practiced with Preaching, Secretary and in your writing exercises, you won't find any so called grammar exercises for this topic.

This topic is covered in: A2-L28