Reported speech in English: How to report questions

English lessons: rules, use, and practice

Reported speech in English: reporting questions

Reporting questions

In reported speech, we not only report statements but also questions. We have two kinds of questions: open and closed questions.

Open question: What are you doing?
Closed question: Are you in school right now?

The open question is a question that requires an open statement as an answer, whereas a closed question is a question that can be answered by a yes or no. as you can see in the table below, in open questions we start with the wh-word, the subject of the sentence, and the verb in the reported tense whereas in closed questions, we start with “if”, the subject of the sentence, and the verb in the reported tense.

Reporting questions
Simple present (Closed question)	“ Are you a student? ” He asked me.
	He asked me if I was a student.
Simple present (Closed question)	“ Do you live here? ” She wanted to know
	He wanted to know if I lived there.
Simple present (Open question)	What do you do? She wanted to know
	She wanted to know what I did
Simple past (Closed question)	Were you a student? She asked me
	She asked me if I had been a student
Simple past (Closed question)	Did you go to school yesterday? She wanted to know
	She wanted to know if I had gone to school
Simple past (Open question)	What did you do last week? She asked me
	She asked me what I had done the previous week
Present continuous (Closed question)	Is she coming tomorrow? She asked me
	She asked me if she was coming the day after
Past continuous (Closed question)	Was she studying? She wanted to know
	She wanted to know if she had been studying
Present perfect (closed question)	Have you finished? She asked me
	She asked me if I had finished
Past perfect (closed question)	Had you ever met Mr. Jack? She wanted to know
	She wanted to know if I had ever met Mr. Jack
Modals Should	“ Should I wear my jellaba or the kaftan today? She consulted her friend.
	She consulted her friend if she should wear her jellaba or the kaftan that day.
Modals Can	“Can you swim?” He wanted to know.
	He wanted to know. She asked if I could swim then.