Reported Questions: -냐고 하다 | Korean Grammar

When you report a question someone asked — "she asked where I was going," "he asked if I'd eaten," "they asked how much it was" — Korean recasts the question as a plain clause and marks it with -냐고, then adds a verb of asking: 묻다, 물어보다, or plain 하다. The wonderful news, after the class-by-class gymnastics of reported statements, is that modern Korean has leveled the question connector almost flat: whatever the predicate — action verb, adjective, or 있다/없다 — colloquial Korean just says -냐고. This page shows the leveled system, notes the older forms you'll still meet in careful writing, and — most importantly — draws the line between a reported question (someone genuinely posed a question) and an embedded "whether" clause, which uses a different ending, -는지.

The frame: plain clause + 냐고 + verb of asking

A reported question is [plain clause] + 냐고 + 묻다/물어보다/하다. The politeness of the original is neutralized (see the overview); the outer asking-verb carries the politeness and tense of your report. Three canonical examples — a wh-question, a yes/no past question, and a price question:

어디 가냐고 물었어요.

eodi ganyago mureosseoyo

She asked where I was going.

밥 먹었냐고 했어요.

bap meogeonnyago haesseoyo

He asked if I'd eaten.

이거 얼마냐고 물어봤어요.

igeo eolmanyago mureobwasseoyo

She asked how much this was.

Modern Korean levels everything to -냐고

Here is the payoff. In contemporary spoken Korean, the connector is simply -냐고 across the board — action verbs, adjectives, and the existence words 있다/없다 all take bare -냐고. The copula alone adds a linking 이: noun + -(이)냐고.

Predicate	Modern (colloquial)	Traditional / careful writing
Action verb (가다, 먹다)	가냐고, 먹냐고	가느냐고, 먹느냐고
Adjective (좋다, 예쁘다)	좋냐고, 예쁘냐고	좋으냐고, 예쁘냐고
있다 / 없다	있냐고, 없냐고	있느냐고, 없느냐고
Copula 이다	학생이냐고	학생이냐고
Past	갔냐고, 먹었냐고	갔느냐고
Future	갈 거냐고 / 가겠냐고	가겠느냐고

시험이 어렵냐고 물어봤어요.

siheomi eoryeomnyago mureobwasseoyo

He asked whether the exam was hard. (adjective → -냐고)

시간 있냐고 물었어요.

sigan innyago mureosseoyo

She asked if I had time. (있다 → 있냐고)

그 사람이 학생이냐고 물었어요.

geu sarami haksaeng-inyago mureosseoyo

She asked if that person was a student. (copula → -(이)냐고)

💡

Traditionally verbs took -느냐고 and adjectives -(으)냐고, and you'll still see those in polished writing and older texts, so recognize them. But in everyday Korean the whole thing collapses to bare -냐고 — that's what you should say. Only the copula keeps its 이: 학생이냐고.

Past and future

As with statements, tense lives inside the clause, before -냐고, and doesn't back-shift:

언제 올 거냐고 물어봤어요.

eonje ol geonyago mureobwasseoyo

I asked when he was going to come. (future -(으)ㄹ 거냐고)

혼자서 할 수 있겠냐고 물었어요.

honjaseo hal su itgennyago mureosseoyo

He asked whether I'd be able to do it on my own. (-겠냐고)

Question words stay in place (wh-in-situ)

This is the structural fact English speakers most need to unlearn. When English forms an indirect question, it moves the question word to the front and drops the inversion: "Where are you going?" → "she asked where I was going." Korean does neither. Question words — 누구, 뭐, 어디, 언제, 왜, 얼마 — stay right in their normal slot (object, adverb) and the verb stays final. There is no fronting and no auxiliary "do." A reported wh-question looks structurally identical to a plain sentence, just capped with -냐고:

민수가 나한테 누구를 만났냐고 물었어요.

minsuga nahante nugureul mannannyago mureosseoyo

Minsu asked me who I'd met. (누구 stays in its object slot)

The 누구를 sits exactly where an object noun would; nothing is dislocated. Trying to reorder the clause into English shape ("...asked who I met" with English word order in your head) is a reliable way to produce a broken Korean sentence.

The crucial contrast: -냐고 vs -는지

Here is the distinction that this connector is really about. -냐고 reports an act of asking — someone actually put a question to someone. But English "ask/wonder whether" covers a second situation: turning a question into a subordinate noun clause of inquiry or uncertainty ("I wondered whether he'd come," "I checked whether it was open"). For that, Korean uses -는지, not -냐고. Compare:

민수가 파티에 오냐고 물었어요.

minsuga patie onyago mureosseoyo

Minsu asked, 'Are you coming to the party?' (he posed the question)

저는 민수가 파티에 오는지 궁금했어요.

jeoneun minsuga patie oneunji gunggeumhaesseoyo

I wondered whether Minsu was coming to the party. (no question was posed)

The first reports speech: Minsu said the question. The second reports a mental state — my curiosity — with no utterance involved, so it takes -는지 with 궁금하다. The rule of thumb: if a person asked (묻다, 물어보다), you can use -냐고; if you're describing wondering / not knowing / checking (궁금하다, 모르다, 확인하다, 알아보다), you want -는지. The embedded -는지 clause has its own page — see -는지: embedded questions.

💡

Ask yourself: did someone actually pose a question out loud? If yes → report it with -냐고 + 묻다/물어보다. If you're just describing curiosity or uncertainty with no utterance (궁금하다, 모르다, 확인하다) → use -는지, not -냐고.

Why English speakers get this wrong

Two habits transfer badly. First, English uses the same wording — "ask whether / wonder whether" — for both the reported-question and the embedded-inquiry cases, so nothing in English nudges you to pick between -냐고 and -는지; you have to make a distinction English never forces. Second, English indirect questions come with visible surgery — fronted wh-word, lost inversion, no "do" — and learners try to reproduce that surgery in Korean, where it's not only unnecessary but wrong. Korean keeps the clause in its plain, verb-final, wh-in-situ shape and simply caps it with -냐고. Less moving of parts, not more.

Common Mistakes

1. Using the statement connector -다고 for a question. Reporting a question requires -냐고.

❌ 밥 먹었다고 물어봤어요.

Wrong — this reports a statement ('…said he ate'); a question needs 먹었냐고.

✅ 밥 먹었냐고 물어봤어요.

bap meogeonnyago mureobwasseoyo

He asked whether I'd eaten.

2. Reordering the clause into English question shape. Keep it verb-final and wh-in-situ.

❌ 그가 물어봤어요 내가 어디 가는지.

Wrong word order — the asking verb must come last: 그가 내가 어디 가냐고 물어봤어요.

✅ 그가 내가 어디 가냐고 물어봤어요.

geuga naega eodi ganyago mureobwasseoyo

He asked where I was going.

3. Leaving a polite ending inside the quote. The clause goes plain; use 가시냐고 for honorifics, not 가세요냐고.

❌ 어디 가세요냐고 물었어요.

Wrong — the polite 가세요 can't sit inside; plain it to 가시냐고 (or 가냐고).

✅ 어디 가시냐고 물었어요.

eodi gasinyago mureosseoyo

She asked where you were going. (honorific subject)

4. Using -냐고 for wondering/uncertainty with no utterance. No one asked → use -는지.

❌ 저는 그가 오냐고 궁금했어요.

Wrong — 궁금하다 describes wondering, not asking; use 오는지.

✅ 저는 그가 오는지 궁금했어요.

jeoneun geuga oneunji gunggeumhaesseoyo

I wondered whether he was coming.

Key Takeaways

Reported question = plain clause + 냐고 + 묻다/물어보다/하다; politeness neutralized, tense not back-shifted.
Modern Korean levels the connector to bare -냐고 for verbs, adjectives, and 있다/없다; only the copula keeps 이 (-(이)냐고).
Older -느냐고 / -(으)냐고 survive in careful writing — recognize them, but say -냐고.
Question words stay in place (wh-in-situ) and the verb stays final — no English-style fronting or "do."
A reported question (someone asked: -냐고) is not an embedded inquiry (wondering/checking: -는지).

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