Reported Speech - Questions

We introduce reported YES/NO questions with ask + if:

direct question	She said,	‘Do you like coffee?’
reported question	She asked	if I liked coffee.

Note that we sometimes use “whether” instead of “if”. The meaning is the same. “Whether” is a little more formal and more usual in writing:

We introduce reported question-word questions with ask + question word:

direct question	He said,	‘Where	do you live?’
reported question	He asked me	where	I lived

We use the same structure as Reported Ye/No questions.

direct question	She said,	‘Do you like tea or coffee?’
reported question	She asked	whether I liked tea or coffee.

	direct question	reported question
Yes/No questions	I asked, ‘Can I help you?’	I asked if I could help her
	She said to us, ‘Did you feel cold?’	She asked if we had felt cold.
	He asked, ‘Are your hands cold?’	He asked whether my hands were cold.
Question-word questions	He asked me, ‘When are you leaving?’	He asked me when I was leaving.
	He said, ‘Why didn’t you say that thing?’	He asked me why I hadn’t said that thing.
	He asked, ‘When will they come?’	He asked when they would come.
	He asked, ‘Who has seen Titanic?	He asked me who had seen Titanic.
	He said, ‘How much might it cost?’	He asked me how much it might cost.
	She said to me, ‘Where is the post office?’	She asked me where the post office was.
Choice questions	He asked, ‘Do you want tea or coffee?’	He asked whether I wanted tea or coffee.
Choice questions	He asked, ‘Is the car new or second-hand?’	He asked whether the car was new or second-hand.

Reported Speech – Questions