Hmm....today I gave my ESL IV students at the community college where I work a quiz. They had to master "Embedded Question Sentences" and "Embedded Question Questions." One of the ways that I teach grammar is let the students think of English grammar as a math formula.
You need to know the basic formula (Standard sentence structure: Subject - Verb - [Object].){Example: Fred is home},
understand the question formula (Question word - Verb - Subject - [Object]?)
{Example: Where is Fred?}.
And then understand the Embedded Question Sentence formula (Sentence starter such as: "I don't know" - Question word - Subject - Verb - [Object].)
{Example: I don't know where Fred is.}
Now, for the most part, the students got this concept. But when it comes to the Embedded Question Question, now the students get confused.
They are aware of the standard question format (Question word - Verb - Subject - [Object]?), but the Embedded Question Question, does not follow the standard question format!
Students are using the question format
(Do you know where is Fred?),
when they should be using the Embedded question question format
(Do you know where Fred is?)
If someone can explain this in a better way, please let me know!!!
