Lesson 36 of 46

Word order in questions

Ask direct and indirect questions in the right order.

The rules

1.Direct questions: question word + auxiliary + subject + verb: "Where do you live?" "What are you doing?"
2.Indirect questions keep normal statement order and drop do/does/did: "Can you tell me where you live?"
3.With "be", swap the subject and verb in direct questions: "Where is he?"

Incorrect: ~~Where you are going?~~

Correct: Where are you going?

Auxiliary comes before the subject.

Incorrect: ~~Do you know where is the station?~~

Correct: Do you know where the station is?

Indirect question uses statement order.

Incorrect: ~~He asked me what did I want.~~

Correct: He asked me what I wanted.

No "did" in a reported question.

Watch out: Polite "Can you tell me…" questions are statements inside: subject first, then verb.

1. Which is correct?

2. Can you tell me where ___?

3. Why ___ late?

Paste any text and see exactly what to fix, with the rule explained.