Rebuilding a Question: Word Order in 'Please tell me...'
At a two-day English camp in Niigata, groups are making a poster for visiting students from Korea. The poster will explain how to get to the Niigata Aquarium. The teacher writes these words on the board and asks each group to make one correct sentence:
how / me / long / please / tell / it / to / takes / to / get / the / aquarium / by / bus
A student, Mio, writes: 'Please tell me how long does it take to get to the aquarium by bus.' The teacher says, 'The words are almost right, but you added one word that is not on the board, and you changed another word. In an indirect question, the order changes.'
The group must correct the sentence without adding or removing any word from the board list. Then they must build a second sentence from these words: for / it / important / us / is / to / arrive / before / ten.
1. Using all and only the words on the first board list, write the correct sentence. Then explain Mio's mistake.
Read the worked answer
Correct sentence: 'Please tell me how long it takes to get to the aquarium by bus.'
Mio's mistake: She wrote 'how long does it take.' In a direct question, English uses do/does: 'How long does it take?' But after 'Please tell me,' the question becomes an indirect question, and the word order changes to statement order: subject + verb. The subject is 'it,' the verb is 'takes.' There is no 'does' on the board, and the board has 'takes,' not 'take.' So Mio added a word and changed a word. The judgement is to recognize the indirect question, not to translate the Japanese question order directly.
2. Build the second sentence from 'for / it / important / us / is / to / arrive / before / ten.' Explain why 'for us' comes before 'to arrive.'
Read the worked answer
Correct sentence: 'It is important for us to arrive before ten.'
Why 'for us' comes before 'to arrive': The sentence uses the pattern 'It is + adjective + for + person + to + verb.' 'It' is a placeholder subject; the real content is 'for us to arrive before ten.' 'For us' names who should arrive, so it must sit immediately before the infinitive 'to arrive.' If you write 'It is important to arrive for us before ten,' the phrase 'for us' attaches to the wrong place and the sentence sounds as if 'arrive for us' is one action. The order is fixed by the pattern.