Direct and indirect questions

[Frezie]

How to build direct and indirect questions?
I have to omit ‘do’, ‘does’, ‘did’ in an indirect question and change word order. What else?

I made sentences to the text. Are they correct?
Direct questions:
1. What does a new study out of Stanford University suggest?
2. What did the study find?
3. What do critics say?
4. Who has a variety of reasons for choosing organic foods?
5. How is сertified-organic food produced?
Indirect questions:
1. Can you tell me what a new study out of Stanford University suggests.
2. Do you know what the study found.
3. Do you happen to know what critics say.
4. Do you know who has a variety of reasons for choosing organic foods.
5. Can you tell me how сertified-organic food is produced.

Exercise: Read the text and make direct and indirect questions to the parts of the sentences written in bold letters.
A new study out of Stanford University suggests that organic foods have no additional nutritional value than non-organic foods1. The study suggests that other factors, such as the ripeness of the produce when it is picked, determine the nutritional quality. The study found that organic food contained significantly less pesticide residue than non-organic food2. Despite the massive research that went into the study, critics say that the research is flawed and based on short-term evidence3. Consumers4 have a variety of reasons for choosing organic foods, including concerns about animal welfare and the environment. Certified-organic food is produced with environmentally and animal-friendly production methods5, and does not contain genetically modified ingredients.

 

[probus]

First of all, your question is incorrectly formed. In English we do not ask "How to ...". We say "How can I..." or "How do I...". Secondly, the exercise itself contains a grammatical error. "Have additional value than ..." is unidiomatic. Say "have additional value compared to ...". Lastly, I don't think you've grasped the concept of indirect question.

 

[Frezie]

First of all, your question is incorrectly formed. In English we do not ask "How to ...". We say "How can I..." or "How do I...". Secondly, the exercise itself contains a grammatical error. "Have additional value than ..." is unidiomatic. Say "have additional value compared to ...". Lastly, I don't think you've grasped the concept of indirect question.

This exercise was given to us by a teacher, a similar exercise will be on the final test. Can you please give an example of a correct indirect question or tell how can I create it?

 

[jutfrank]

Don't forget that you still need to put question marks at the end of indirect questions. Other than that, you've got everything right in terms of the grammar. I can't see what the point of writing indirect comprehension questions about a reading text is, however. Your direct questions are fine but the indirect ones are not appropriate at all. We typically use indirect questions when we want to make polite enquiries to strangers.

Who designed this exercise? Is this part of a course assignment?

 

[emsr2d2]

This exercise was given to us by a teacher, a similar exercise will be on the final test. Can you please give an example of a correct indirect question or tell how can I create it?

When do you have to submit your exercise answers to your teacher?

 

[Frezie]

When do you have to submit your exercise answers to your teacher?

I have already submitted this task and the online system rated it at 5.67/16 for eight questions.

 

[Frezie]

Don't forget that you still need to put question marks at the end of indirect questions. Other than that, you've got everything right in terms of the grammar. I can't see what the point of writing indirect comprehension questions about a reading text is, however. Your direct questions are fine but the indirect ones are not appropriate at all. We typically use indirect questions when we want to make polite enquiries to strangers.

Who designed this exercise? Is this part of a course assignment?

The exercise was developed by our teacher. This is homework, which will also be on the final test.

 

[emsr2d2]

This is homework,

The forum rules are very clear. We don't help with homework or assignments. Your teacher is interested only in your work. When your teacher returns your homework, having marked it and made comments, you can come back to us if there's anything you don't understand about the marks or comments.

I don't know what you mean in post #6 when you said you "sent it for review" and that "the system rated it". What sort of review? What system? You didn't answer my question about when you have to submit it to your teacher.

 

[Frezie]

The forum rules are very clear. We don't help with homework or assignments. Your teacher is interested only in your work. When your teacher returns your homework, having marked it and made comments, you can come back to us if there's anything you don't understand about the marks or comments.

I don't know what you mean in post #6 when you said you "sent it for review" and that "the system rated it". What sort of review? What system? You didn't answer my question about when you have to submit it to your teacher.

Sorry, but our teacher haven't marked it, only the system gives a mark. So I don't have any comments, and I don't even know which question was correct. I just have a mark 5.67 from 16. So I'm posting it here to hear what I wrote wrong.

 

[emsr2d2]

I still want to get to the bottom of this. You said your teacher gave you the homework. Do you mean that your teacher told you to go and do an online exercise (on this mysterious "system")? Didn't you have to tell your teacher what you scored?

 

[Frezie]

I still want to get to the bottom of this. You said your teacher gave you the homework. Do you mean that your teacher told you to go and do an online exercise (on this mysterious "system")? Didn't you have to tell your teacher what you scored?

The teacher uploads this to Moodle (I don't know if you know this system). He sees our results and I only see a mark.

 

[emsr2d2]

Doesn't your teacher give you any feedback?

 

[Frezie]

Doesn't your teacher give you any feedback?

No, that's why I'm here.

 

[emsr2d2]

OK. That's not very helpful of your teacher. I have done the first one for you, but I think you need to read up on the difference between direct and indirect questions. (Note that I have made a correction to the main sentence because it was ungrammatical.) I have assumed that you were supposed to use the parts in bold to create the questions.

A new study out of Stanford University suggests that organic foods have no more additional nutritional value than non-organic foods.

Direct question: Helen asked me "Do organic foods have more nutritional value than non-organic foods?"
Indirect question: Helen asked me whether organic foods have more nutritional value than non-organic foods.

 

[5jj]

Don't forget that you still need to put question marks at the end of indirect questions.

Only when they are posed within direct questions:

Do you know what the study found?
I'd like to know what the study found.
Please tell me what the study found.