In this ESL grammar lesson, students practice rewriting questions as embedded questions.
ESL Grammar: What are Embedded Questions?
Embedded questions are questions that are included within a larger sentence, either a statement or another question. They are often used to make requests or statements more polite or indirect. Unlike direct questions, embedded questions follow the word order of a statement and do not require a question mark at the end.
Structure of Embedded Questions
Embedded questions begin with an introductory phrase, followed by the question word and the subject-verb order of a statement.
Introductory phrase + question word + subject + verb
Examples of Embedded Questions
- Statements:
- Direct: Where is the nearest bus stop?
- Embedded: I wonder where the nearest bus stop is.
- Direct: What time does the meeting start?
- Embedded: Can you tell me what time the meeting starts?
- Questions:
- Direct: Where did she go?
- Embedded: Do you know where she went?
- Direct: How much does this cost?
- Embedded: Could you tell me how much this costs?
The English grammar lesson below introduces embedded questions in clear and simple language that is easy for ESL learners to understand. Our series of ESL grammar lessons on subjects and verbs introduce these concepts and reinforce them through helpful and instructive exercises.
This lesson is available for free download, and you can download many more English grammar lessons focusing on advanced aspects of English grammar (past continuous tense, present perfect tense, present perfect continuous tense, passive voice, embedded questions, relative clauses) in our comprehensive, intermediate- to advanced-level ESL grammar textbook Great, Great Grammar! (Book 3: Tenses and More!).
