PREVIOUS GRAMMAR QUESTION

Please ask her where is she going over the week-end and is her boyfriend going to but don’t tell her that I ask for the informations.


1. Embedded question:

When a question clause (i.e., a clause introduced by a question word) is embedded within a longer clause, you should use the declarative sentence word order (i.e., the subject followed by the verb) unless you want to use direct speech, in which case you need to change the pronouns to match the original speech participants.

2. Preposition:

In this context, “over” seems a little too informal. It is better to use “for”.

3. Word form:

“Weekend” is one word. There is no hyphen.

4. Embedded question:

Here, too, we need to maintain the declarative sentence word order.

5. Conjunction required:

We need to add a conjunction to connect the implied clause (“Please ask her”) with the second question clause. “Whether” is preferable here, but “if” is also frequently used in this situation.

6. Word confusion:

We want to say “too” (meaning “also” or “as well”) rather than “to”.

7. Verb tense:

The questioning occurs in the past, so we probably want to put the verb in the past tense (“asked”). Alternatively, if we construe that question as something that continues in the speaker’s mind, we might use the present progressive (“am asking”), or the present perfect (“have asked”).

8. Word form:

Information is uncountable, so there is no plural form.

9. Internal punctuation:

There are several ways of doing this. The simplest is to use a comma after “too” to separate the two independent clauses.


Possible solution:

Please ask her where she is going for the weekend and whether her boyfriend is going too, but don’t tell her that I asked for the information.