Reported questions and commands

Reporting questions and instructions

• We can report the content of questions, requests and commands: She asked where I lived. He told me to wait. A report does not reproduce every original word.
• Outcome: preserve who asked or instructed whom, and the intended meaning, with an appropriate reporting frame. Start with reported statements. Starting check: does She asked what I did contain an error simply because it contains did? No.

She asked where the meeting was; the calendar asked the same thing.

Reported questions

• The embedded question uses statement order: She asked where I lived, not where did I live. Use if / whether for a yes/no question: He asked if I was busy. Keep the wh-word for an information question.
• Remove question-forming do/does/did, not every form of do: She asked what I did is natural. Emphatic did can also remain: She asked why I did want the job. Time and pronouns follow the reporting context; backshift is not an automatic word substitution.
• A statement report ends in a full stop: She asked where I lived. A larger sentence that is itself a question can end in a question mark: Did she ask where I lived? The embedded clause still has statement order.

Reported requests and commands

• One useful pattern is tell / ask + someone + to + base verb: She told me to wait. He asked me to help. The person is the one asked or told to act. The form alone does not guarantee politeness or a harsh tone.
• Other frames have other meanings: He asked to leave means he requested permission for himself to leave; He asked me to leave asks me to go. Do not insert a person after every use of ask.

Negative instructions

• For an instruction not to act, use not to: He asked me not to be late. She told us not to enter reports an instruction against entering.
• Keep the negative's meaning clear: He didn't ask me to leave denies the request; He asked me not to leave reports a request to stay. These are different reports.

Common mistakes

• In this report, use He asked me if I was busy, not He asked me am I busy. The original question Am I busy? is grammatical as direct speech in a different context.
• Use He told me not to be late, not He told me don't be late, when using this indirect instruction frame.
• Use She suggested going or She suggested that I go, not She suggested me to go. She suggested to me that I go is another frame; keep the grammar and intended participants together.

Worked contrasts: preserve the report

• The larger question: Did Noor ask where the keys were? asks whether Noor made a request for information. Only the outer Did Noor ask has question order; where the keys were keeps statement order.
• Who leaves: Alex asked to leave early reports Alex's request to leave. Alex asked Lee to leave early asks Lee to leave. Both are grammatical; adding Lee changes the actor rather than merely improving the first sentence.
• Do as the action: “What do you do after school?” can become She asked what I did after school. The first do forms the direct question; the second names the activity and becomes did in this backshifted report. A current report can keep do when the present context warrants it.

Apply and review

• Report a question and a negative request in English. Check the embedded order, who acts and what the negative denies. Do not impose yesterday's time words on a report made today.
• Later, explain the difference between didn't ask me to wait and asked me not to wait without looking back. Continue with past modals. Broader independent practice and independent review remain pending.

Usage guidance checked 2026-10-20: Cambridge, indirect speech and Cambridge, ask. Local source checks; independent language, answer and learner review pending.