indirect, polite ,questions

[alvarofernandez]

Hi!
I have a little problem about a polite question using "wonder". What is the correct or more usual form?

I wonder if you could tell me what time the bus leaves

or

I wonder if you could tell me what time leaves the bus?

Thanks for your help

[riverkid]

Originally Posted by alvarofernandez

Hi!
I have a little problem about a polite question using "wonder". What is the correct or more usual form?

I wonder if you could tell me what time the bus leaves

or

I wonder if you could tell me what time leaves the bus?

Thanks for your help

The first is the normal word order. There's no need to invert the subject and the verb because the whole sentence isn't really a question and secondly, we don't invert anyway to ask 'what time' questions. We use the auxiliary verb 'does'.

[engee30]

Originally Posted by alvarofernandez

Hi!
I have a little problem about a polite question using "wonder". What is the correct or more usual form?

I wonder if you could tell me what time the bus leaves

or

I wonder if you could tell me what time leaves the bus?

Thanks for your help

If you really want to be very, very polite, then use the verb wonder in the past continuous form:
I was wondering if... ?

[riverkid]

Originally Posted by engee30

If you really want to be very, very polite, then use the verb wonder in the past continuous form:
I was wondering if... ?

Excellent point, Engee.

[engee30]

Originally Posted by riverkid

Excellent point, Engee.

Thank you, Riverkid.
The idea of putting the verb in question into that particular form is quite fresh to me - I'm looking through all the grammar books I possess, creating a computer program.

If you'd like to know what exactly I'm writing about, download the .RAR file, unpack it, click on the setup.exe file, and watch it work (I hope)!
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