Reported questions: me preguntó si

Report a yes/no question with si, an open question with its question word, and a command with que plus the imperfect subjunctive:

• Me preguntó si tenía hambre. - He/She asked me if I was hungry.
• Me preguntó dónde vivía. - He/She asked me where I lived.
• Me dijo que viniera. - He/She told me to come.

Reported questions and commands on one screen

After a past reporting verb the tenses step back, as in reported speech: tienes becomes tenía, está becomes estaba. The question marks go, because the sentence now states what was asked.

Reported yes/no questions: si

A question you can answer with yes or no is reported with si:

The tense steps back only after a past reporting verb. After a present one, it stays:

• Me pregunta si quiero café. - He/She is asking me if I want coffee.

This si means whether

This si is not the si of if-sentences. It means whether, so it can take the future or the conditional, which the if-si does not take in standard Spanish:

• No sé si vendrá. - I don't know whether he/she will come.
• Si vienes, te ayudo. - If you come, I'll help you.

Reported open questions: keep the question word

An open question keeps its question word, and the word keeps its written accent:

1234

1. 1quién era
2. 2dónde estaba
3. 3cuándo empezaba
4. 4cuánto costaba

Me preguntó... - he/she asked me who he was, where it was, when it started, how much it cost.

The accent marks a question, with or without question marks. Where there is no question, there is no accent:

• Me preguntó dónde trabajaba. - He/She asked me where I worked.
• Vivo donde trabajo. - I live where I work.

In speech you will often hear que before the question word: Me preguntó que dónde estaba el tren. That is correct Spanish and commonest in speech; careful writing usually leaves the que out.

The verb comes straight after the question word

English moves the subject forward: "where the train was". Spanish normally keeps the order of the direct question, with the verb straight after the question word:

• Me preguntó dónde estaba el tren. - He/She asked me where the train was.
• Me preguntó cuándo empezaba la película. - He/She asked me when the film started.

Por qué is the loose one: the subject may come before the verb, as in Me preguntó por qué Ana no vino. (He/She asked me why Ana didn't come.)