Indirekt Fragesätze

What is an Indirekt fragesätze?

They are subordinate clauses that look more polite. Fragesätze is just a question in a fancy way. Indirect questions are questions that are included within the structure of another sentence because indirect questions are dependent clauses(Nebensätze),so we have to change the position of the verb. Indirect questions follow certain question starters and accordingly they will take a full stop or a question mark.

The two question types that we all know are :

W-Frage are information sentences(verb in 2nd position)

Ja/Nein Frage are conformation sentences(verb in 1st position)

The sentence structure of indirect questions differs from that of direct questions. 

Construction of indirect questions– question starter, then question—verb goes to the end of the sentence

Eg  Direct question – Wo warst du im Urlaub?

      Indirect question- Ich möchte wissen,wo du im Urlaub warst.

So what changed here 

• 1The Fragewort “wo” here works as a connector so the verb will go to the end of the sentence(this is a rule of a nebensatz).The question starter becomes the main sentence aka Hauptsatz. 
•  Ich möchte wissen is our question starter (Hauptsatz)
•  wo du im Urlaub warst is our main sentence (Nebensatz)
• 2 We can see in the first sentence we have a question starter ( Ich möchte wissen)
• 3 The verb(warst) in the second sentence is in the last position.
• 4 A comma(,) must be present  between the hauptsazt and nebensatz.

When can we use indirect questions?

We don’t begin with the main part of the sentence. We say something first to sound more polite or when we are speaking to distant relatives in a classroom or an office environment.

Some common question starters include

• Do you know?
• I don’t know.
• I’d like to know.
• Is it confirmed?
• Are you sure?
• I wanted to ask.

Important note question starters are complete(full) sentences,but they cannot make a point on their own hence we need to add a main sentence.

Example sentences- Ich habe gefragt,wann du die Hausaufgabe machst.

                               Sag mir bitte,warum du so traurig bist.

                               Ich möchte wissen, wann wir die Ergebnisse bekommen. 

                               Wissen Sie,wie mein Name ist?

You  all must be wondering what to do with Ja/Nein Frage but i’ve got it covered

Simply just use ob(whether) let’s not confuse ob with wenn.Ob is whether and wenn is conditional.  

We use ob with Ja/Nein frage to transform them into indirect questions and question words like (wann,wo,wie warum) with W frage to transform into indirect questions.

Ja/Nein Frage sentences

• Ich möchte wissen,ob du Deutsch sprechen kannst.
• Ich möchte fragen,ob du gern ins Kino gehst.
• Sag mir bitte,ob dein Auto teuer ist. 
• Wissen Sie,ob ich noch Zeit haben?

It is very important to know when to use a full stop(.) or a question mark(?) at the end of the complete sentence. An easy trick is to look at the question starter.

Do you know?       I wanted to ask.

Are you sure?        I’d like to know.

Hence we have used a (?) Wissen Sie,ob ich noch Zeit haben?

And a full stop(.) Sag mir bitte,warum du so traurig bist.

To ensure the perfect Indirekt fragesätze follow these points

Step 0– write down the two distinct statements

Step 1– Identify the common entity(the common entity has to be a noun to form a relativsatz)

Step 2– What is the case of the relativsatz(Nom,Akk,Dat,Gen)? choose the relative pronoun accordingly(what is the case of the common entity according to that we will choose the case of the relative pronoun).

Step 21/2– Is there a relative preposition carrying it in the relativsatz?Use it accordingly. 

Hope this explanation was accurate and to the point

Thanks for reading!

~Shreya