Reported Speech: Questions & Commands
மறைமுக பேச்சு: கேள்விகள் மற்றும் கட்டளைகள்
Reporting a question or a command reshapes the sentence completely, not just the tense — question word order disappears, and commands turn into a to-infinitive.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Reported questions lose their question word order entirely
'Where do you live?' → She asked where I lived. (no more do-support, no more inverted order — it becomes a plain statement shape)
'நீ எங்க வசிக்கிற?' → நான் எங்க வசிக்கிறேன்னு அவள் கேட்டாள். (என்று/-னு simply closes off the quoted question, no structural change required)
Tamil reports a question the same way it reports a statement — close it with என்று/-னு, with no special restructuring of the original question's word order. English reported questions have to undo all the special question machinery: the do-support disappears, subject and verb return to statement order, and the question mark is dropped. Reported commands simplify even further, collapsing down to told/asked + person + to + verb: 'Sit down!' becomes She told him to sit down.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- Tamil (English explanations)
- நான் எங்க வசிக்கிறேன்னு அவள் கேட்டாள்.nān enga vasikkiṟēnnu avaḷ kēṭṭāḷ.
- Tamil (English explanations)
- நான் ரெடியா இருக்கேனான்னு அவன் கேட்டான்.nān ready-ā irukkēnānnu avan kēṭṭān.
- Tamil (English explanations)
- உட்காரச் சொன்னா அவனிடம்.uṭkārach sonnā avaṉiḍam.