Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

Reports of wh-questions

495b

When a wh-question is reported indirectly, the word order is normally declarative

rather than interrogative:

So I asked him 

what

the arrangements were

. 

(So I asked him what were the arrangements.) 

I phoned up the hospital and asked 

who

I should address the letter to

. 

(… who should I address the letter to)

In informal spoken style, interrogative word order is sometimes used:

I asked him 

where

was he going 

but he wouldn’t say. 

(instead of: I asked him where he was going …)

814 | Speech representation

Cambridge Grammar of English

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VOICE IN THE REPORTING CLAUSE

496

Most reporting verbs are active voice, but passive voice is also frequent in indirect

reports, especially indirect reports with ask and tell:

My husband 

had been told at the hospital that they were short-staffed.

They 

should have been asked if it had cost them money to get there.

Passive voice is much less frequent in the reporting clause in direct reports, but it

does occur (as be- and get-passive) in complement clauses of reporting nouns:

A question

I’m often asked is, ‘Why do we need a pronouncing dictionary?’

One question

we often get asked is, ‘Do the crew sleep on board?’

A–Z

20 Ask (for)