Vitamin-M / I Cannot Remember My Mother
Asking and reporting questions
Ask questions, and report the questions others asked.
Two kinds of question:
- Wh- questions begin with who, what, where, when, why, how: 'What did you both do today?'
- Yes/No questions begin with a helping verb: 'Have you forgotten?'
Direct and reported speech. Direct speech gives the speaker's exact words in quotation marks. Reported (indirect) speech tells what was said, later and elsewhere.
Reporting a question: turn it into a statement (no question mark):
- Yes/No → if or whether: 'Do you help?' → He asked if she helped.
- Wh- → keep the wh-word: 'How do you manage?' → He asked how she managed.
Shift back: present → past, past → past perfect; change pronouns and time words: today → that day, tomorrow → the following day, now → then, here → there.
How questions sound: Wh- questions fall at the end; Yes/No questions rise; choice questions rise then fall ('Shall we play chess ↗ or watch the match ↘?').
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