Indirect questions: no sé dónde está

Explanation

An indirect (embedded) question is a question folded inside a larger statement, after verbs like saber, preguntar, decir, explicar, entender: no sé dónde está, pregúntale cuándo llega, no entiendo por qué tarda. The question word keeps its written accent, but the ¿ ? marks disappear.

The word order is statement-like, and the verb still typically precedes the subject after the question word: no sé dónde vive tu hermano. The accent on dónde/cuándo/qué is what signals the embedded question.

Yes/no questions embed with si ('whether/if'): no sé si puedo ir, me preguntó si tenía tiempo, dime si te sirve. (This si is unaccented and unrelated to conditional si.) The embedding itself doesn't trigger the subjunctive.

Examples

Related rules

• Question words: dónde, cuándo, cómo, por qué, cuánto
• Que-clauses as objects: creo que, dijo que