Learn How to Use Embedded Questions to Ask Polite English Questions 🤔❓🤷｜Learn English with Bob the Canadian

So this isn't the town where I normally record my English lessons, so I don't know where everything is.

So if I wanted to find the bank, I could ask someone, where is the bank?

But this way of asking the question is very direct.

It's not impolite, it's not rude, but it's somewhere in between.

And it would be better to ask it using an embedded question.

It's better to say something like this. Do you know where the bank is?

An embedded question is a question and it can also be a statement where there's the start of the question and then there's a question inside of it or the start of the statement and then a question inside of it.

Do you know where the bank is? That's a good example of an embedded question.

So when I ask it that way, it just sounds a little more polite.

There's nothing wrong with the first one.

Where's the bank? But listen to this. If I walked up to someone and said, excuse me, where is the bank?

That sounds direct. But if I said, excuse me, do you know where the bank is?

That sounds a little friendlier. Here are a few more examples.

You could say something like this. Do you know where the bathrooms are?

There's an example in the plural. Or do you know where the CN Tower is?

It's not in this town. It's in Toronto. You can also put this into a statement.

If I was with Jen and we were both in this town, I could say, I wonder where the bank is.

So you'll notice it's not a question, but it does have that statement does have a little question in it.

I wonder where the bank is. By the way, the banks right there, I found it.

It wasn't that hard to find. I have been to this town before, but those are embedded questions.

Let's look at a few more. At some point in our lives, we've all lost something.

In particular, I sometimes lose my car keys.

And when that happens, I might ask Jen this question.

I might say, Jen, where are my car keys?

But that question sounds a little direct to me.

It almost sounds like I'm accusing Jen of taking my car keys and putting them somewhere else.

In my opinion, a much more polite way to ask a question would be this.

Jen, do you know where my car keys are? Jen, do you know where my phone is?

Jen, do you know where my wallet is? And if I wanted to create a statement with an embedded question, I could say this.

I wonder where my car keys are. This actually might be what I'm thinking as I'm looking for my car keys.

I wonder where my car keys are. So if I wanted to ask an embedded question politely, I could say, do you know where my car keys are?

And if I wanted to use a statement, I could say, I wonder where my car keys are.

Let me give you an example of an embedded question you can use to ask about a person.

Let's say you're at work and there's some new person walking around and you don't know who they are.

You could ask a colleague directly, who is that?

This is a non-embedded question. It's just a very direct question.

Who is that? It's not rude, but it's not polite.

It's probably something you would ask. But I think a better way to ask it would be to say this.

Do you know who that person is or do you know who that is?

Again, this is an embedded question. It starts with a question and it has a question inside of it.

Do you know who that person is? Do you know who that is?

If you wanted to just lean over to a colleague and use a statement, you could say this, I wonder who that person is.

And then maybe your colleague hopefully knows the answer and tells you, well, that's Jim.

He started here last week. So once again, you can use an embedded question to also talk about people.

Speaking about forgetting things, sometimes I forget people's names.

If I haven't seen someone for a few years, sometimes I don't remember what their name is.

And if I was with Jen, I might ask this question, what is his name?

Or what is her name? But if I wanted to format it as an embedded question, I could say this.

Do you know what his name is? Do you know what her name is?

Or do you remember what his name is? Do you remember what her name is?

And if I wanted to create a statement with an embedded question, I could say this.

I wonder what his name is. I wonder what her name is.

That might be what I'm thinking as I drive home after seeing someone whose name I couldn't remember.

And I might have even had a conversation with them.

I might be driving home thinking, I wonder what his name is.

I wonder what her name is. So again, when you don't know someone's name, that's how you would use the embedded question.

Do you know what his name is? I wonder what her name is.

So in this English lesson, I gave you several examples of embedded questions.

But they all ended with is or are. And there are plenty of other words to choose from when you're using embedded questions.

Words like was or do or go or want. Here are a few examples.

Let's say there was a loud noise. I could ask this question.

Do you know what that was? Let's say you're hooking something new up to your network at home.

And because I know a little bit about technology, I might say, do you know what to do?

Let's imagine Jen and I are in a brand new city, a city that's unfamiliar to us.

I might ask Jen, do you know where we should go?

Maybe we're looking for a parking spot or something like that.

Or imagine you're at a restaurant and you're there with little kids.

Sometimes it takes little kids a while to decide what they want.

So you might ask this question, do you know what you want?

So there's four more embedded questions, examples that you can use in your next English conversation.

Well, thank you so much for watching this English lesson about embedded questions.

I hope you were able to learn a few more phrases that you can use in your next English conversation.

If this is your first time here, don't forget to click the subscribe button.

Give me a thumbs up, leave a comment below, and please do consider becoming a member.

There are more and more exciting things for members on this channel.

There's a join button below or a subscribe plus button.

If you click that, you can get a little bit more information.

Thanks for watching. I'll see you next week with another English lesson.

Bye.

[英語学習：埋め込み疑問文（Embedded Questions）を使ってより丁寧な会話をしよう]-[Learn How to Use Embedded Questions to Ask Polite English Questions 🤔❓🤷]

📋 Summary

埋め込み疑問文（Embedded Questions）を用いた丁寧な英語表現の習得

1. 埋め込み疑問文とは何か

2. 実践的なシチュエーション別の活用例

3. 「is/are」以外の動詞の活用

結論

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript