Indirect questions

Existen tres tipos de indirect questions en inglés.

1. Reported questions.

• What's your name?- She asked me what my name was.
• Where do they live? - She asked me where they lived.
• Are you Spanish? - She asked me if I was Spanish.

Las preguntas en reported questions siguen las mismas reglas que otras frases de reported speech. Es decir, el tiempo del verbo suele cambiar de la siguiente manera:

present simple - past simple

present continuous - past continuous

past simple - past perfect

present perfect - past perfect

past continuous - past perfect continuous

past perfect = past perfect

may - might

can - could

will - would

shall - should

would, could, should, ought to = would, could, should, ought to

must - had to (ó must)


2. Indirect questions.

Las indirect questions (preguntas indirectas) son aquellas estructuras que utilizamos en inglés para preguntar algo de manera más educada y menos directa. El orden de las palabras es como si fuese una frase normal (afirmativa). Por tanto, NO se utiliza verbo auxiliar.

• What time is it? - Can you tell me what the time is?
• Where is the bank? Do you know where the bank is?
• Is the bank open on Saturdays? Can you tell me if the bank is open on Saturdays?

Preguntas con question words (what, who, when...).

• What is your name? - He asked me what my name was.
• How many brothers have you got? - She asked me how many brothers I had.
• When is he coming home? - They asked me when he was coming home.
• What time is the party? - They asked what time the party was.

3. Yes/No questions.

Estas son preguntas que tienen como respuesta sí ó no.

Se utiliza ask + if ó whether si son yes/no questions. Los tiempos funcionan igual que en reported questions (ver arriba)

• "Do you speak Spanish?" - She asked me if I spoke Spanish
• "Are you happy or sad?" - He asked me whether I was happy or sad
• "Is he ready?" - They asked if he was ready.
• "Are they Spanish or English?" - She asked whether they were Spanish or English