Changing the direct questions to indirect questions.

Question

2. How old was he?  A: How old you are.3. How much did it cost?   How much did cost you.4. Why didn't he ask the name of the fruit?  Why didn't you ask the name of the fruit.5. Why did the details seem so important?Sorry, this is too hard. Can anyone explain me so that I could do the rest on my own?

Avangi · Accepted Answer

Sometimes the direct question includes a statement about the person who asked it:

The teacher was angry. She said, "John, why don't you ever bring your homework to class?"

You could make this into an indirect question this way:

The angry teacher asked John why he never brought his homework to class.

None of the examples you provided told us who is asking the question, so you have to make something up. You could start by doing that.

Notice that the question word remains the same: Why? How? What? Where? etc.

Mr Wordy · Answer

Are you given any example answers? It's not completely clear what's expected (not to me, anyway).

Yankee · Answer

Hi Eddie

Your exercise would be easier to do (and would probably also make more sense to you) if you knew who had actually asked the question. As Avangi mentioned, if you don't know that, you will have to invent something.

When you report a question that someone else asked, you can begin with words such as "She asked" or "He wanted to know".

In addition, the word order of an indirect question changes. A direct question uses interrogative word order (i.e. the inverted interrogative form) for the subject and verb. When you turn the question into an indirect question, you do not use interrogative word order. Here is what you might write for number 5:

Let's say Mary asked you this question (i.e. the following is a direct quote of Mary's question):
=> "Why did the details seem so important?"

When you later tell someone else what Mary wanted to know, you can word it this way:
=> Mary wanted to know why the details seemed so important.

It is also possible that your teacher will expect you to change the tense in the indirect question above. Did your teacher mention that?

XHealthY · Answer

We already did it in class. However she gave another HW.

Embedded questions: word order and punctuation.

Complete the conversation by changing the direct questions in parentheses to embedded
questions. Use correct punctuation.

A: Do you know if there is anything good on TV? ( this was already done for me. )

B: There's a soccer game on this evening that I want to watch.

A: I don't understand Why he had enjoyed watching sports all the time.
(Why do you enjoy watching sports all the time? )

b: Well, I want to know how could he have watched those boring travel shows.

( How can you watch those boring travel shows? )

A: I like to find out what was the most popular travel destinations?
( What are the most popular travel destinations? )

B: But you never go anywhere. Can you remember when he had his last vacation?
( When was your last vacation? )

I am not done yet, but could you correct those?

I must learn these. I have a final test soon!

XHealthY · Answer

I think I get it.

For instance, If I say "How are we going to get by?"

I have to change the blue?

How they were going to get by.

What did you wear to school?

What he had to wear to school.

So, "did" becomes "had or have" right?

you - he
we - they

what our? Their?

Avangi · Answer

xHealthYB: There's a soccer game on this evening that I want to watch.
(I'm not sure if you're supposed to shift the tenses to past.)
He says there is a soccer game on this evening tht he wants to watch.
He said there was a soccer game on that evening that he wanted to watch.

A: I don't understand Why he had enjoyed watching sports all the time.
(Why do you enjoy watching sports all the time? )
(I think you need to include a statement that someone asked this, but this may be "an embedded question" vs. "an indirect question." If you have examples like this, then okay.)
She asked him why he enjoyed watching sports all the time.
(You may not have to shift the tense here. It depends on your instructions.)
She asked him why he enjoys watching sports all the time.
(When you use "I don't understand," I don't believe you should shift the tense, because "I don't understand" is in the present. And surely, you should not use the past perfect "had enjoyed.")
I don't understand why he enjoys watching sports all the time.

b: Well, I want to know how could he have watched those boring travel shows.

( How can you watch those boring travel shows? )
(Again, I think if your "introduction" is in the present tense, there's no need to shift the tense found in the direct question. I'm also curious about your fascination for perfect tenses. I'm not familiar with shifting to the perfect tenses. Also, I don't think what you've done in this example would be called "reported speech." You're still addressing the person, but have changed the question to a statement. I think all you need to do is change the subject/verb inversion back from interrogative order to declarative order.)
Well, I want to know how you can watch those boring travel shows.

A: I like to find out what was the most popular travel destinations?
( What are the most popular travel destinations? )
(Same as the previous one. Just change the subject/verb order back from interrogative to declarative.)
I would like (I'd like) to find out what the most popular travel destinations are.

B: But you never go anywhere. Can you remember when he had his last vacation?
( When was your last vacation? )
(This is tricky. A question within a question. Again, I don't believe there's any reason to change the person - that is, from "you" to "him." Yours is good, except for this person detail.)
But you never go anywhere. Can you remember when your last vacation was? OR,
But you never go anywhere. Can you remember when you had your last vacation?

The thing about changing persons is when your question is addressed to the second person (you) and you make up someone in the third person (she and he).
"Where is your homework?" "She asked me where my homework was." "She asked him where his homework was."

Avangi · Answer

xHealthYI think I get it.

For instance, If I say "How are we going to get by?"

I have to change the blue?

How they were going to get by. I want to know how we are going to get by.
(Don't change the tense. "I want to know" is in present tense.)
She asked me how we were going to get by.
(Change the tense. "She asked me" is in simple past.")

What did you wear to school? (This sentence is already in past tense!)

What he had to wear to school. I want to know what you wore to school.

(I want to know" is in present tense. Don't change the tense of the "question." Remember that in the interrogative order the past tense is indicated by the auxilliary verb "do," and not by the main verb "wear." "What do you wear?" (present) "What did you wear?" (past) When you switch to declarative order, the past tense job is now carried by the main verb. We no longer need "do/did." "I wear this." (present) "I wore this." (past) )

She asked me what I had worn to school. ("She asked" is in past tense, so you may optionally shift the past tense "wore" further back to the past perfect tense, "had worn." I don't think it's required, but you need to see what your teacher wants.)

So, "did" becomes "had or have" right? If your original question is in the simple past, AND if your "introduction" to the transformation is also in the past, then you may/must shift the declarative verb back to past perfect. Yes.

you - he
we - they

what our? Their?
I would hesitate to generalize on these formulae.

The material you're presenting is difficult in that you're dealing with more than one type of transformation, so you can't reduce the exercises to a simple formula, and say "one size fits all."

What you say here is on the right track. But you're still dealing with two issues at the same time. One issue is changing the subject/verb order from interrogative to declarative. The other issue is occasionally shifting the tense when necessary. You must keep your wits about you, and not confuse one issue with the other.

Yankee · Answer

Hi Eddie

The problem with your sentences is that because you did not add something such as "He asked" or "She wanted to know" at the beginning of the indirect question, you have incomplete sentences. Look at my corrections and comments in the quote:

xHealthYFor instance, If I say "How are we going to get by?"
~~How they were going to get by.~~
Eddie wanted to know how they were going to get by.
("they" = Eddie and his family, for example)

Eddie asked me this: "What did you wear to school?"

~~What he had to wear to school.~~
Eddie wanted to know what I wore (or had worn) to school.

So, "did" becomes "had or have" right? No, the verb above is the simple past tense of "wear" in the interrogative form (did you wear). In the reported speech (indirect question) version of the sentence, you you need an affirmative past form ("I wore" or possibly "I had worn".)

you - he
we - they

what our? Their?
It depends on who said what to whom.

It would be very helpful if you could tell us more specifically what your teacher wants you to do. Right now, I can only guess at what your teacher told you to do.

XHealthY · Answer

This is too hard! I still don't get it.

I will look for more example. I hope this site helps me- http://tillyer.net/GLOW/fsi201.htm

That's what we doing in class.

Mr Wordy · Answer

xHealthYThis is too hard! I still don't get it.

I will look for more example. I hope this site helps me- http://tillyer.net/GLOW/fsi201.htm

That's what we doing in class

The problem is that the instruction "Change the direct questions to indirect questions" is, by itself, too vague. "Indirect question" can mean different things, and there are all sorts of different ways you could answer. Without a model question and answer, and without knowing exactly what you've been doing in class, it's very difficult to know what answers are expected.

Changing the direct questions to indirect questions.

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