5 exercises — practise embedded question word order for polite, professional support requests.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence correctly embeds a question inside a polite support ticket request, using statement word order?
"Could you tell me why the export is failing?" correctly embeds the question "why is the export failing" inside a polite request, switching to statement word order (subject before verb, no inversion) as required for embedded questions. Option A keeps the inverted question word order ("why is the export"), which is incorrect once the question is embedded under "tell me". Option C incorrectly keeps the do-support inversion "does the export fail", which embedded questions do not use. Option D scrambles the word order entirely, placing the verb "is" at the end incorrectly.
2 / 5
Which sentence correctly embeds a yes/no question using "whether" or "if" inside a support request?
"Can you check if the license key has expired?" correctly embeds a yes/no question using "if" as the connector, followed by statement word order ("the license key has expired"), with no auxiliary inversion. Option B omits the required connector "if"/"whether" and keeps the inverted question order, both errors. Option C keeps the connector "if" but incorrectly retains the inverted order "has the license key expired". Option D scrambles the clause order entirely.
3 / 5
Which sentence correctly embeds a wh-question about the cause of a problem, appropriate for a formal support ticket?
"I'm not sure what causes the timeout errors" is correct: since "what" is itself the subject of the embedded clause ("what causes the timeout errors"), statement word order and question word order coincide here, and no auxiliary "is" is needed or correct, since "causes" already functions as the main verb. Option A incorrectly inserts "is" before "causing", producing a mismatched auxiliary-plus-participle structure that isn't needed when "what" is the subject. Option B scrambles the word order further. Option C also incorrectly reorders the clause with a stray "is".
4 / 5
Which sentence correctly embeds a question about time inside an email asking a colleague for information, using statement word order?
"Do you know when the maintenance window will start?" correctly embeds the question with statement word order: subject ("the maintenance window") before the auxiliary and verb ("will start"), with no inversion. Option A incorrectly keeps the inverted order "will the maintenance window". Options C and D both scramble the verb placement into ungrammatical sequences.
5 / 5
Which sentence correctly embeds a question inside a direct question format (still requiring statement word order internally), typical of a support ticket subject line phrased as a question?
"Do you know why my API key is not working?" is correct: even though the overall sentence is a direct question (inverted "do you know"), the embedded clause "why my API key is not working" itself keeps statement word order internally, since the inversion rule does not apply twice. Option A incorrectly inverts the embedded clause too ("why is my API key"), a very common learner error. Option C and D both scramble the internal word order of the embedded clause into ungrammatical sequences.