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Questions tagged [indirect-question]

A sentence that reports a question and ends with a period rather than a question mark

Indirect questions are sentences that contain the essence of a question, but do not directly ask the question.

For example:

The judge asked the prisoner how did he plead.

She asked me if I had a pen.

If the question appears in quotes, it is still indirect, although the question should have a question mark.

The teacher asked 'Where is Edinburgh?'.

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When do "direct" and "indirect" questions become the same?

Possible Duplicate: “I'm not sure what the right way is” Direct and indirect questions are not usually the same: What is your name? I don't know what your name is. But sometimes, they become the same: What is wrong with you? I don't know what…
B Faley
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Indirect questions with question mark

Is this an indirect question: You are probably wondering, what are they staring at? My instinct is to add a question mark, since, if you changed the construction to, You are probably asking, "What are they staring at?" I would want to add a…
T Bell
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Indirect questions: Can you explain how you will or how will you?

Do you say: "Can you explain me how you will do that?" or "Can you explain me how will you do that?" Thanks for clarifying.
Lucy
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How to write a sentence containing a question within it?

I'm trying to figure out how to write this sentence in particular: And, who knows, it might actually work. What punctuation marks do I need to use? Is it correct? It just feels a bit off to me.
Pascal x
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Indirect Questions

How do you transform this question into indirect form? Who will be the new replacement teacher? Then the transformation is: Can you please tell me who the replacement teacher will be? Or Can you tell me who will the replacement teacher be? I…
Commander123
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(in)direct question after the copula

I'm wondering which of the following options is correct in writing: The question is how do we improve our French. The question is, how do we improve our French? The question is: How do we improve our French? The question is how we can improve our…
Apollyon
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Indirect questions and the word order

I am bit confused by the use of Indirect questions in the sentence. Moreover, it is being very difficult for me to use backshift method for interrogatives. In the given sentence, please tell me if the word order used is correct or not. And in the…
Umer Malik
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Should I use the question sign in a phrase started with "I'm wondering..."?

Is it correct to use the question sign ? for indirect questions started with the phrase "I'm wondering"? For example, I am wondering if you know his name? Formally this is not a question, because it starts with "I am wondering" but not "Am I…
Warlock
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What do you think + indirect question. Part 2

"What do you think" + Indirect question? Dear John Lawler, should I infer from your detailed analysis that "what do you think..." at times does not involve using the indirect question structure? I tend to believe it would contradict the basic…
Ana Perez
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Indirect question using the verb "amount to"

A amounts to B. Which of the following is the correct form of indirect question related to the above sentence? 1) Could you tell me to what A amounts? 2) Could you tell me what A amounts to? The first form is rarely found. (Source) Is it…
Sasan
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