Indirect Questions

 

An indirect question is a more polite way of asking a question.

Where do you come from?

Would you mind telling me where you come from?

If a question doesn't begin with a word like who or what orhow often, we use if instead. For example:

Are you married?

Would you mind telling me if you are married?

This table shows how to make indirect questions.

Question phrase	Q Word	Subject + Verb
Can you tell me Could you tell me  Do you know  Would you mind telling me	who  why when if	you love? he was late? we are going? you can swim?

Now look at these examples:

Do you like him?

Can you tell me if you like him?

We don't say "can you tell me if do you like him?" because we just need the Subject + Verb at the end.

We use a similar structure to talk about questions when we don't actually want an answer. For example:

I don't know I can't remember I understand

why how what

he left. I did it. you said.

From: The Tiny TEFL Teacher