1   Em inglês, as wh-questions são perguntas começadas por palavras interrogativas do tipo: what, who(m), whose, which, when, where, why, how.

 
 
 

2   Consideremos a frase seguinte na interrogativa directa do tipo wh-:

He asked, "Where are the children?"

Para convertê-la em interrogativa indirecta, siga os seguintes passos:   (a) comece por:

He asked ...

(b) introduza o pronome pessoal me (como opção):

He asked (me) ...

(c) adicione o advérbio where da interrogativa directa:

He asked (me) where ...

(d) mude a ordem das palavras "verbo + sujeito" (are the children) para "sujeito + verbo" e recue o tempo verbal para o passado:

He asked (me) where the children were

(e) termine a frase com ponto final:

He asked (me) where the children were.

NOTA: Repare na ausência dos recursos gráficos na interrogativa indirecta (que são somente empregues na interrogativa directa): a vírgula (,), as aspas ("...") e o ponto de interrogação (?).

 
 
 

3   Os passos apresentados no ponto anterior aplicam-se quando os verbos são do tipo be (principal ou auxiliar), have (auxiliar) e modais (can, will, may, etc.):

He asked, "How is the baby?" He asked (me) how the baby was.   He asked, "Who are you going out with?" He asked (me) who I was going out with.   He asked, "How many exercises have you done?" He asked (me) how many exercises I had done.   He asked, "When can Susan see me?" He asked (me) when Susan could see him.   He asked, "What will you be doing?" He asked (me) what I would be doing.

 
 
 

4   Os verbos auxiliares do, does, did (nas interrogativas directas) desaparecem nas interrogativas indirectas:

He asked, "What do you want?" He asked (me) what I wanted.   He asked, "Where does she live?" He asked (me) where she lived.   He asked, "Why didn't she telephone?" He asked (me) why she hadn't telephoned.