Today I heard someone saying "...people ask me how can I ...", I know it's wrong, but then again, what if she was quoting?
So the question is: Can you change an embedded interrogative clause to a quote when you speak?
E.g. "He asked me how he can get there?" "He asked me "how can I get there?""
I personally don't do that cause it might get confusing, (it's okay when you are writing, right?) but if you have to, can you?
Thank you very much!
Direct speech:
Question: "How can I get there?"
Reported speech: He asked me how he could get there.
Question: "What is your name?"
Reported speech: She asked me what my name was.
With the verb to be, take care to put the verb at the end.
Question: "When can you come?"
Reported Speech: She asked me when I could come.
Question: "**When **did they leave****?"
Reported Speech: He asked me when they left.
All direct speech can be converted to indirect speech. It can become slightly complicated but I have given a few more examples.
The problem is that you hear a lot of people just transposing the speech and not actually reporting it:
Question: "When are you expecting an answer"? [question form]
Incorrect: "They asked me when are you expecting an answer".
Correct: "They asked me when you are expecting an answer".
The verb must be put in some past tense.
Basically reported speech calls for questions to return to a statement form, which means you have to make sure the verbs are not inverted.
