| Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. In this video, I'm going to talk about how to make embedded questions in English. Let's get started. |
| First, let's take a look at what an embedded question even is. What is an embedded question? An embedded question is a question inside another question or inside a sentence. Embedded questions are used to make questions softer or more polite. So, in this lesson, I'm going to compare embedded questions, questions that are inside something else, with direct questions. So, we can see how we need to change the questions in order to make this inside type of question. So, let's start by making these two sets. |
| So, the first one is this direct question set. So, here are some samples of just very, very basic direct questions. "What time does the bus leave?" "What time does the bus leave?" Very basic question, information question, right? Or, "Who ate my sandwich?" "Who ate my sandwich?" Again, very simple, basic question. One more, "What is the password?" "What is the password?" These are simple basic direct questions. |
| Then, let's compare this to embedded questions. So, let's change these direct questions and put them inside another question or another statement. And, let's take a look at what happens to the questions when we do this. So, the first direct question was, "What time does the bus leave?" In an embedded question, for example, we could say, "Can you tell me what time the bus leaves?" "Can you tell me what time the bus leaves?" So, you can see this question, "What time the bus leaves?" is different from the direct question "What time does the bus leave?" We have different word order and different words used here. We're going to talk about why this is in the middle of today's lesson. |
| Let's look for the time being at the second example though. "Who ate my sandwich?" in this direct form. And, in the embedded form, "Do you know who ate my sandwich?" "Do you know who ate my sandwich?" So, here, we have "do you know" to introduce the embedded question. And, in this case, we have "who ate my sandwich." No change. There's a reason for this as well. We'll talk about later. Lastly, "What is the password?" "What is the password?" In an embedded question, it might look like this: "I'd like to know what the password is." "I'd like to know what the password is." So, again, this part, the question, "what the password is." This is different from "What is the password?" So, we're going to break down the reasons for these changes and introduce the rules so that you can make your own embedded questions. |
| First, let's start by looking at this type of sentence: "What is the password?" This is an example of a direct question that uses the verb "be." So, "to be," meaning "is," or "are," or "was," or "were." When you have a question that uses the "be" verb, we need to follow a certain type of rule. And, that is we move the "be" verb after the subject when we make an embedded question. So, for example, when we saw "what is the password," we needed to change that in our embedded question, so the verb comes after the subject. This is what we see here, "I'd like to know what the password is." So, in this case, the verb comes after the subject, "the password." This is the same rule we need to follow for other questions that use the "be" verb. So, let's take a look at three more examples. |
| First, "Where are the car keys?" "Where are the car keys?" Here is my "be" verb. So, we need to move this after the subject to create an embedded question. Here's my sample, "Can you tell me where the car keys are?" So, here is my embedded question. I'm starting the question, "can you tell me," and the basic question is here, the direct question is here with the new grammar. "Can you tell me where the car keys are?" So, a very common mistake is learners don't move the "be" verb to the end, or to after the subject. "Can you tell me where are the car keys?" is incorrect. Make sure to move it to the after point, the after subject point. |
| Okay. Let's look at the next example. "How long is the movie?" "How long is the movie?" Here, the "be" verb is "is." So, we need to move this after the subject. Here's our sample embedded question with this grammar. "Do you know how long the movie is?" "Do you know" introduces the embedded question "how long the movie is?" Again, we moved "is" from this position before the subject to this position after the subject. One more example of this. "Why is the city so polluted?" "Why is the city so polluted?" "Polluted" means it's filled with maybe dirt, trash, its poor quality air, and so on. So, "Why is the city so polluted?" Again, we have this "be" verb here. And, here's our subject, "the city." So, here's a sample embedded question. "I wonder why the city is so polluted." "I wonder why the city is so polluted." So, please note we don't move the "be" verb always to the end of the sentence. We move it after the subject. Like we see here, "the city" is our subject, so we put it after the subject in this position, "I wonder why the city is so polluted." |
| Also, another thing that's important to note that you can see here is that, although these are called embedded questions because there's a question inside something else, we don't always need to use a question mark at the end. In this case and in this case, we're asking a question, right? "Can you tell me" and "do you know." But, this one, "I wonder," it's like we're thinking about something. "I wonder why." This is not a question, so we use a period at the end of this. So, keep this in mind. Sometimes, it's a question and we should use a question mark. Sometimes, it's not. So, just use a period or maybe an exclamation point. Okay, great. |
| So, this is our first point about "be" embedded questions. Embedded questions that use "be." Now, let's take a look at another thing we need to consider. That's when our question uses the auxiliary or the helping verb "do." So, we saw an example of this here, "What time does the bus leave?" We saw this here. Here's my verb, our auxiliary "does." We change this to "Can you tell me what time the bus leaves?" So, in this part, you might notice there's no "does," right? Why is that? That's because of an interesting rule we need to consider. |
| So, in these cases, we remove that. We remove that "do," or "does," or "did." And, we use the verb, the other verb, that's in the question. So, what does this look like? Here are a couple of quick examples. Our direct question, "Where did he go?" "Where did he go?" In this case, we have past tense, yeah, "did." Right? And, our verb here is "go," right? So, to follow this rule, we need to remove this auxiliary, this helping verb. And, we use the verb that's in the question instead. We also need to make sure this change uses the same tense as the original helping verb. So, what does this look like? Here's a sample, "Do you know where he went?" "Do you know where he went?" So, "do you know" introduces the question, "where he went." We use "went" because it's the past tense form of the verb that was in the question before. We have no "did" here. So, not "Do you know where did he went?" Incorrect. That's a very common type of mistake I see with learners. "Do you know where he went?" It's the perfect way to create this type of embedded question. Let's look at one more example. |
| "What time does she start work?" "What time does she start work?" So, again, we have "does" here. "Does," all right. So, we need to remove that. And, we have this "start" in this case. We have the verb "start." So, what's a sample sentence here. "I'm not sure what time she starts work." "I'm not sure what time," so we have this part remains the same, "what time she starts work." So, we have our verb here matching the tense of the sentence. In this case, this is a present-tense sentence, right? So, we have the present tense verb structure applied, "she starts work," right? So, keep in mind, we always have to use the same tense that "does" is used in the original question. But, we have to remove that "does" and use that tense for the verb that's actually in the sentence. So, this one can be a little bit tricky to remember. It's kind of a special grammar point. But, this is how we use the "do" verb rule with embedded questions. Okay? Great. |
| So, one more quick point about this is if you have a question like this, "Who ate my sandwich?" There's no "be" verb, and there's no "do" verb. Lucky you! There's no change. So, "Who ate my sandwich?" A question like this that doesn't have this verb or this verb, doesn't require any change. We can simply use it in the embedded question as it is. "Who ate my sandwich?" can be put into the embedded question with no changes. So, that's the one that's easy to remember. So, "be" and "do" questions are the ones you really need to think about. Okay, great. |
| Let's move on to the last part for this lesson, yes or no questions. So, sometimes, we have questions that don't have a question word. Like who, what, where, when, how long, and so on. These are simple yes or no questions. So, if there is no question word in this sentence, you can create the embedded question with "whether" or "if." So, "if" or "whether." We start the embedded question with that. So, what does that look like? |
| Let's take a look at some very simple examples here. "Are they hungry?" Or, "Was he angry?" Or, "Is this vegetarian?" So, none of these have a who, what, where, when, why question, right? Simple yes/no. So, how do we make an embedded question with these? |
| First one, "Are they hungry? Okay. Here's a sample question: "Let's ask if they're hungry." "Let's ask if they're hungry." This is our embedded question, "if they are hungry." Yeah? Okay. Next one: "Was he angry?" "Was he angry?" "Do you know if he was angry?" "Do you know if he was angry?" "If he was angry, okay? And, the third one: "Is this vegetarian?" So, meaning "Is this food vegetarian?" Could you tell me," introduces the question "Could you tell me if this is vegetarian?" "Could you tell me if this is vegetarian?" Oh, yes it is or no it isn't. So, keep in mind, we can use whether or if. But, generally, "if" tends to sound a little bit more casual, a little bit more commonly used in everyday conversation. You may hear people using "whether" in this position too. |
| Another point to consider, you might have noticed, that we changed the "be" verb position here as well. Yeah? So, for example, "Are they hungry?" become "They are hungry." And, "Was he angry?" becomes "He was angry," right? So, we still have to change the position of the "be" verb here, and we add this "if" or "whether" before the embedded question. Okay? So, this is another important grammar point to keep in mind. With practice, it becomes easier, and there are some embedded questions that are very, very common. For example, "Could you tell me where the restroom is?" There are some that you will use a lot and they will become easier over time. |
| So, the very last point that I want to make is about these starting phrases here. So, these starting phrases we've looked at in today's lesson, these are some examples of phrases we very commonly use to begin our embedded questions. So, for example, "Do you know…"? We looked at this earlier many times. "Do you know," something? or "Can," or "Could you tell me…?" "Can you tell me…" or Could you tell me…?" "Could" will sound a little bit more polite. "Let's ask," or "Let's find out," or "Let's see." We can use these as well. We saw this here. "Let's ask if they're hungry." "Let's find out if they're hungry." "Let's see if they're hungry." So, this is suggesting let us do this thing. We want to find out some information. The next one is "I wonder." "I wonder…" We saw this here, "I wonder why the city is so polluted." So, we can use this to kind of think out loud. And, the last two, "I'm not sure." "I'm not sure…" We saw this here, "I'm not sure what time she starts work." So, we can use this to express some uncertainty. And, the last one, "I'd like to know." "I'd like to know…" So, when you want to politely request information. "I'd like to know what time the bus leaves," and so on. |
| So, these are just some examples. There are some more as well, but these are very, very common. So, I hope that this lesson helped you understand what embedded questions are, why we use them -- to sound a little bit more polite or to sound a little bit less direct. And, I hope that you are able to make your own embedded questions following the rules we talked about in this lesson. Of course, if you have any questions or comments, or if you want to practice making some sentences with this grammar, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video. Thanks very much for watching this lesson, and I will see you again soon. Bye! |
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