Learn English – How to ask for someone’s name and where they are from politely or indirectly

politeness

If I want to ask a question in a polite way, how should I ask?

  • Which is correct?
    1. May I ask you what's your name?
    2. May I ask you what your name is?
  • Which is correct?
    1. Could you tell me where are you from?
    2. Could you tell me where you're from?

In the same way, there may be other important grammatical rules. Could you please explain me?

Best Answer

These sentences come in two parts. Let's look at each part, first as a statement and then as a question. Note that the word order is inverted in the question.

You could tell me... statement, not inverted
Could you tell me... question, inverted
Where you are from. statement, not inverted
Where are you from? question, inverted.

When you phrase a polite question, the polite bit is grammatically the question (so it's inverted), and what you want to ask is simply a statement (so it's not inverted).

So, in the correct versions of your two questions, the word order of what you want to ask (the highlighted bit) is not inverted.

  1. May I ask you what your name is?
  2. Could you tell me where you are from?
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