First, I will introduce myself. I am a teacher of English at an Official School of Languages who loves travelling, cinema and tv series, skiing and spending time with friends and family.
My aim with the creation of this blog is to introduce and discuss some grammar and vocabulary topics in order to offer support to my students and to all of those who, not being my students, are interested in learning or consolidating their English.
I really hope you enjoy it and please feel free to leave a comment if you please.
And now, let's go with the first topic...
- Who are you? - Can you tell me who you are?
What's the difference between those two questions? As you have probably guessed, the second question is an indirect question. Let's have a look at the differences:
When we ask a question in English, we invert the order of the verb/auxiliary and the subject. An example would be:
- Do you have any milk?
However, we can also ask this question as an indirect question in order to sound more polite or more formal. In order to do this, there are some rules we need to follow:
1. Firstly, the question elements must be kept in the same order than in an affirmative sentence. Let´s have a look at the above example as an indirect question:
- I wonder if you have any milk.
2. The indirect question is introduced by a construction with can or could like "can you tell me" or "could I know" or by some of the following expressions: "I'm not sure", "I can't remember", "I want to know" or "Do you have any idea".
- Can you tell me if you have any milk?
3. We may also have to introduce some new elements like "if" or "whether","why", "what" or "how" in order to introduce the indirect question.
-Can I know how much milk you have got?
4. The operator "do" or "did" disappears in the indirect question.
- Did you have any homework? vs - Can you tell me if you have any homework?
Let´s look at some more examples of these by looking at this clip from the "Friends" very first episode: "the one where it all began". Sorry about the poor quality of the clip.
The first question that is asked in the video is: "Can I get you some coffee?", if we want to formulate this question as an indirect question, the result could be: "I wonder if I can get you some coffee". As you see, the modal verb can and the subject I which were inverted in the direct question are placed in the "normal" positions in the indirect question .
Let´s have a look at the rest of the questions asked in the clip:
- Monica: So, do you wanna (want to) tell us now or are we waiting for four wed (wedding) bridemaids?
How could we turn this double cuestion into a double indirect question? The answer could be: "So, we wonder if you want to tell us now or if we are waiting for four wed bridemaids". A little bit later on in the clip, Rachel makes an indirect question herself. Can you identify the indirect question? Yes, the answer is: "I started wondering why I am doing this and who I am doing this for".
I would like to finish this first post by discussing some of the vocabulary terms used in the clip.
Rachel uses the following terms:
-"turned on", (turn on): phrasal verb that meaning "sexually attracted". Example: Uniforms turn me on every time!
- "freaked out" (freak out): adjective which means scared, frightened. Example: I was freaked out by her strange behaviour
- "drifted apart" (drift apart): phrasal verb that means "to lose contact gradually". Example: He moved to China and time and distance ended up drifting us apart
That's all for now. Thank you for reading my first post. I hope you have enjoyed it and I wish you all a lovely week!
How could we turn this double cuestion into a double indirect question? The answer could be: "So, we wonder if you want to tell us now or if we are waiting for four wed bridemaids". A little bit later on in the clip, Rachel makes an indirect question herself. Can you identify the indirect question? Yes, the answer is: "I started wondering why I am doing this and who I am doing this for".
I would like to finish this first post by discussing some of the vocabulary terms used in the clip.
Rachel uses the following terms:
-"turned on", (turn on): phrasal verb that meaning "sexually attracted". Example: Uniforms turn me on every time!
- "freaked out" (freak out): adjective which means scared, frightened. Example: I was freaked out by her strange behaviour
- "drifted apart" (drift apart): phrasal verb that means "to lose contact gradually". Example: He moved to China and time and distance ended up drifting us apart
That's all for now. Thank you for reading my first post. I hope you have enjoyed it and I wish you all a lovely week!
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