How Direct Questions Become Indirect

When you ask someone a question directly, you use inverted word order — the verb comes before the subject. But when you wrap that question inside a polite phrase or a longer sentence, the word order flips back to the normal subject + verb pattern. That's an indirect question.

Compare these two:

Direct: Where does she work? Indirect: Could you tell me where she works?

Notice what changed. The auxiliary "does" disappeared, and the verb moved back after the subject ("she works" instead of "does she work"). The sentence sounds softer, more polite — and that's exactly why we use indirect questions.

The most common introductory phrases are Could you tell me…, Do you know…, I was wondering…, Can you explain…, and I'd like to know…. These phrases act as a signal: everything that follows uses statement word order, not question word order.

Yes/No Questions Need "if" or "whether"

Direct questions that start with an auxiliary (Is he…? Do they…? Can we…?) don't have a question word like where or when. When you make them indirect, you need to add if or whether as a connector:

❌ Do you know is the museum open on Sundays? ✅ Do you know if the museum is open on Sundays?

Both if and whether work here. Some teachers will tell you whether is slightly more formal, but in practice they're interchangeable in most indirect questions.

Wh-Questions Keep Their Question Word

If the direct question already has a question word (what, where, when, why, how, who), you keep it — but you still change the word order:

❌ I'd like to know where is the nearest pharmacy. ✅ I'd like to know where the nearest pharmacy is.

Here's another pair:

❌ Can you tell me what time does the train leave? ✅ Can you tell me what time the train leaves?

In the incorrect versions, the learner kept the inverted (question) word order after the introductory phrase. That's the single most common mistake at B1–B2, and it comes from a natural instinct: the sentence feels like a question, so your brain wants question grammar. Resist it. After the introductory phrase, use subject + verb, as if you were making a statement.

Punctuation and Tone

This catches people off guard: not every indirect question ends with a question mark. It depends on the introductory phrase.

If the outer sentence is itself a question, use a question mark:

Could you tell me where the meeting is**?**

If the outer sentence is a statement, use a full stop:

I wonder where the meeting is**.**

I'd like to know what time it starts**.**

The phrase I was wondering… is technically a statement, so grammatically it takes a full stop — though in casual writing many people add a question mark anyway.

The Mistake That Costs the Most Marks

Let's be direct about this. The error that B1–B2 learners make over and over is using inverted word order inside the indirect question:

❌ She asked me where had I been. ✅ She asked me where I had been.

❌ Do you know how much does this cost? ✅ Do you know how much this costs?

The fix is mechanical: after the question word (or after if/whether), write the subject first, then the verb — exactly as you would in a normal sentence like "This costs ten euros." If you can train yourself to treat everything after the introductory phrase as a statement, you'll get indirect questions right almost every time.

One last edge case worth knowing: when who or what is the subject of the question, the word order doesn't actually change, because it was already subject-first:

Direct: Who won the match? Indirect: Do you know who won the match?

No inversion to undo — so the two forms look nearly identical. Don't overthink it; just keep the same order.