Learn English – Direct To Indirect Speech : Conversion of ‘do’

direct-speechdo-supportreported-speechsubordinate-clausestransformation

I was practicing direct to indirect conversion, when I saw something peculiar in the sentences. Consider the sentence given below –

1) He said to me, "Where do you live?".

I considered various sources and everywhere the correct answer was –

He asked me where I lived.

My question is, why it wasn't transformed like this? –

He asked me where did I live.

Rule says that – The present indefinite is changed to past indefinite, so shouldn't the 'do' of present be changed to 'did' in past? Why in such sentences we omit 'do'?

Now, consider the following sentence –

2) The doctor said to the patient, "If you don't take medicine properly, you will not get well".

The answer was given as –

The doctor warned the patient that if he didn't take medicine properly he would not get well.

Now why didn't we omit 'do'? What's the correct rule? When should I change 'do'? When I should not?

Best Answer

Where do you live?– I live in the USA.

In your example "do" is used to form the interrogative in present simple. It is also used to form the negative. Note, you don't use it in the statement

He asked where I lived.

The reported question is usually in a form of a statement. We don't use auxiliaries. But in negative statements they are used.

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