Can you tell me what time it is?

[Freeguy]

What's the reason that we say:

Can you tell me what time it is?

But not:
Can you tell me what time is it?

 

[Boris Tatarenko]

Not a teacher nor a native speaker.

In your second sentence you asked two questions: "Can you...?" and "what time is it". You can't ask questions this way.

The first one is correct.

Examples:

Do you know who I am? (not Do you know who am I?)
Can you show me where the bank is? (not Can you show me where is the bank?)

 

[MikeNewYork]

We invert the subject and verb in direct questions (can you tell me), but not in indirect questions (what time it is).

If the second part were a direct question, it would be "What time is it?"

 

[Tdol]

If you invert the word order in the second part, you'd be asking two questions:

Can you tell me? What time is it?

The first question wouldn't make much sense.