3B Can I ask you ...?

A Correct the mistakes in the indirect questions. Then ask and answer the questions in pairs.
1 Can I ask you who do you look up to
most in your family?
2 I’d like know whether you ever envy
your siblings.
3 Could you tell me everyone in your family is
on the same wavelength?
4 I’d like to know what people in your family
boast about?
5 Can you tell whether everyone in your house
respects your privacy?
6 Would you mind tell me how often your parents
praise you for doing something?
7 I wonder if you could tell me who in your family
you have the most in common with?
8 Could I ask you what if your parents often nag
you about the clothes you wear?

B Write eight indirect questions of your own to ask your classmates about their relationships with family/friends.
Use the expressions in the box and your own ideas. Make sure you start your questions in different ways!

admire  adore  be close to  be wary of  confide in  despise 

feel sorry for  flatter  insult  see eye to eye with  tease  trust

Solutions 2nd edition  Upper-Intermediate © Oxford University Press • Photocopiable

 3B Can I ask you ...?

Aims  To review and practise indirect question forms. To engage

students in a group project to produce a questionnaire and
survey classmates.
Time  15 minutes
Materials  1 handout for each student
• Give each student a handout and tell them to complete task
A. Check answers as a class, taking the opportunity to review
the reasons and rules for using indirect questions.
Answer Key
1 who do you 5 tell me whether
2 like to know 6 telling me
3 me if everyone 7 ?
4 ? 8 you what if
• Divide the class into groups of four and tell them to complete
task B. Make it clear that each student needs to make a note
of the questions they decide on.
• When students have completed their questionnaires, divide
the class into four groups, so that each one has a member
from each of the original groups. Students then ask the
people in their group the questions from their questionnaire
and note their answers. When everyone has finished,
students return to their original group to collate data.
• Get each group to give the class some feedback on their
most interesting/surprising findings. You may like to write
some sentence starters on the board for students to make
use of, e.g. To our surprise, most students told us ... / Interestingly,
hardly anybody said ... / Apparently, nobody thinks ...

Solutions 2nd edition  Upper-Intermediate © Oxford University Press