Indirect questions

Understand the rule, see it in context, then put it into practice.

67 chapters · 64 common verbs
A2

Indirect questions

Indirect questions are subordinate clauses, so the conjugated verb goes last. Keep a W-question word such as wo or wann. For a yes/no question, use ob (whether/if), not wenn.

Understand the idea

An indirect question embeds a question inside another sentence. It may report what someone asked or politely request information. The embedded part follows subordinate-clause order even if the whole sentence ends with a question mark.

Build it step by step

Keep a W-word when the original question has one. For an original yes/no question, introduce the embedded question with ob. Place its finite verb at the end. The surrounding main clause keeps its own statement or question order. Decide punctuation from the complete sentence, not from the embedded clause alone.

See it in a sentence

Weißt du, ob er heute kommt?

Do you know whether he is coming today?

Kannst du mir sagen, wo der Bahnhof ist?

Can you tell me where the station is?

A useful memory aid

Transform a direct question into an indirect one in two steps: choose its introductory word, then move the embedded finite verb to the end.

A common trap

Do not preserve direct-question inversion inside the embedded clause. Also distinguish ob, meaning whether, from conditional wenn.

Sources & how to use this book

Original explanations, tips and learning examples by DeutschLearner, with grammar facts checked against the references below. The A1–B2 labels guide study; they do not certify a proficiency level. Reading a chapter does not mark a topic as mastered. Existing exercises provide the translated examples; no source exercise bank or example sentences were copied.