Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Miscellaneous examples
A: I don't understand Why he had enjoyed watching sports all the time.
(Why do you enjoy watching sports all the time? )
(I think you need to include a statement that someone asked this, but this may be "an
embedded question" vs. "an indirect question." If you have examples like this, then okay.)
She asked him why he enjoyed watching sports all the time.
(You may not have to shift the tense here. It depends on your instructions.)
She asked him why he enjoys watching sports all the time.
(When you use "I don't understand," I don't believe you should shift the tense, because "I
don't understand" is in the present. And surely, you should not use the past perfect "had
enjoyed.")
I don't understand why he enjoys watching sports all the time.
b: Well, I want to know how could he have watched those boring travel shows.
A: I like to find out what was the most popular travel destinations?
( What are the most popular travel destinations? )
(Same as the previous one. Just change the subject/verb order back from interrogative to
declarative.)
I would like (I'd like) to find out what the most popular travel destinations are.
B: But you never go anywhere. Can you remember when he had his last vacation?
( When was your last vacation? )
(This is tricky. A question within a question. Again, I don't believe there's any reason to
change the person - that is, from "you" to "him." Yours is good, except for this person
detail.)
But you never go anywhere. Can you remember when your last vacation was? OR,
But you never go anywhere. Can you remember when you had your last vacation?
The thing about changing persons is when your question is addressed to the second
person (you) and you make up someone in the third person (she and he).
"Where is your homework?" "She asked me where my homework was." "She asked him
where his homework was."