When you report what someone asked — rather than what they said — Brazilian Portuguese reshapes the original question in two ways at once: it changes the structure (a question becomes a subordinate clause), and it often shifts the tense backward. This page covers how to report both yes/no questions ("Are you coming?") and wh-questions ("Where do you live?"), which behave differently. If you have not yet read the overview of reported speech, start there for the big picture; this page zooms in on questions specifically.
The core mechanism: a question becomes a statement-shaped clause
A direct question has its own special grammar — rising intonation, sometimes a question word at the front, and in English, subject-auxiliary inversion ("Where *do you live?"). When you embed that question inside *perguntar ("to ask"), all of that question-specific machinery disappears. The embedded clause takes ordinary statement word order, loses its question intonation, and is no longer punctuated with a question mark.
Ela perguntou onde eu morava.
She asked where I lived.
Notice there is no question mark on that sentence — the whole thing is a statement about a question. This is the single most important idea on the page: a reported question is not a question. It is a declaration that reports the act of asking.
Yes/no questions → "perguntar se"
When the original question could be answered "yes" or "no," you introduce the reported version with se ("whether/if"). Brazilian Portuguese has no inversion to undo here — direct yes/no questions are already marked only by intonation — so the work is to attach se and backshift the tense.
— Você vem amanhã? → Ele perguntou se eu vinha no dia seguinte.
'Are you coming tomorrow?' → He asked whether I was coming the next day.
A médica perguntou se eu já tinha tomado a vacina.
The doctor asked if I had already gotten the vaccine.
Me perguntaram se a gente aceitava cartão.
They asked me whether we accepted card.
For English speakers this is reassuring: it works almost exactly like English "whether/if." The only trap is reaching for a question word where none exists. "Are you coming?" has no what/where/who, so you must use se — there is nothing else to introduce the clause.
Wh-questions → "perguntar" + question word
When the original question opens with a question word — o que, onde, quando, como, por que, quem, qual, quanto — that word stays and introduces the embedded clause. You do not add se; the question word already does the linking job.
— Onde você mora? → Ela perguntou onde eu morava.
'Where do you live?' → She asked where I lived.
— Por que você saiu cedo? → O chefe perguntou por que eu tinha saído cedo.
'Why did you leave early?' → The boss asked why I had left early.
O entrevistador perguntou quanto eu ganhava no emprego anterior.
The interviewer asked how much I earned at my previous job.
"O que" usually stays "o que"
In direct speech Brazilians overwhelmingly say o que ("what"). When reported, it normally stays o que — though you will also hear the bare que in writing and careful speech. Both are correct; o que is the everyday default.
Ela me perguntou o que eu queria de aniversário.
She asked me what I wanted for my birthday.
Ele perguntou que horas eram.
He asked what time it was.
The second example shows que (not o que) in the fixed phrase que horas — when que directly modifies a noun ("which/what + noun"), you do not use o que. See que vs. o que for the full split.
Word order: no inversion in the embedded clause
This is where English speakers and even Spanish speakers stumble, but in opposite directions. Brazilian Portuguese embedded questions take subject-before-verb order, the same as a normal statement.
✅ Perguntei onde ele estava.
I asked where he was.
Spanish would happily allow Pregunté dónde estaba él with the subject after the verb, and learners coming through Spanish often carry that inversion over. In Brazilian Portuguese it sounds wrong in this embedded context. Keep the subject in front of the verb:
Ela quis saber como a reunião tinha terminado.
She wanted to know how the meeting had ended.
Não me lembro de quem trouxe o bolo.
I don't remember who brought the cake.
Tense backshift with a past reporting verb
When the reporting verb is in the past (perguntou, quis saber, perguntei), the tense inside the embedded clause shifts one step backward, exactly as in English. This is covered in depth on reported speech tense shifts, but here is the pattern as it applies to questions:
| Direct question | Reported (past verb) | Shift |
|---|---|---|
| "Você vem?" (present) | Perguntou se eu vinha. (imperfect) | present → imperfect |
| "Onde você mora?" (present) | Perguntou onde eu morava. (imperfect) | present → imperfect |
| "Você foi?" (preterite) | Perguntou se eu tinha ido. (pluperfect) | preterite → pluperfect |
| "Você vai?" (future) | Perguntou se eu ia. (conditional/imperfect) | future → "ia + inf." |
— Você já comeu? → Ela perguntou se eu já tinha comido.
'Have you eaten yet?' → She asked if I had already eaten.
— Vocês vão viajar nas férias? → Perguntaram se a gente ia viajar nas férias.
'Are you going to travel on vacation?' → They asked whether we were going to travel on vacation.
When the reporting verb is in the present (ela pergunta se...), no backshift happens — the embedded tense matches the original. Backshift is triggered specifically by a past reporting verb.
Ela sempre pergunta se eu estou comendo direito.
She always asks whether I'm eating properly.
Pronouns and time/place words shift too
Reporting a question is a change of viewpoint, so first/second-person pronouns and deictic words (hoje, amanhã, aqui) usually adjust to the reporter's perspective — just as in English.
— Você me empresta seu carro hoje? → Ele perguntou se eu emprestava o meu carro naquele dia.
'Will you lend me your car today?' → He asked if I would lend him my car that day.
Here você → eu, me/seu flip to match the new speaker, and hoje → naquele dia. These shifts are not unique to questions; they apply across all reported speech.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ele perguntou onde estava eu.
Incorrect — subject inverted after the verb, transferred from Spanish/English.
✅ Ele perguntou onde eu estava.
He asked where I was.
❌ Ela perguntou que eu queria.
Incorrect — a bare 'que' where 'o que' (what) is needed.
✅ Ela perguntou o que eu queria.
She asked what I wanted.
❌ Ele perguntou se eu viesse no dia seguinte.
Incorrect — subjunctive after reporting 'se'; this 'se' takes the indicative.
✅ Ele perguntou se eu vinha no dia seguinte.
He asked whether I was coming the next day.
❌ Perguntei onde você mora? (with a question mark)
Incorrect — a reported question is a statement and takes no question mark.
✅ Perguntei onde você morava.
I asked where you lived.
❌ Ele perguntou se onde eu trabalhava.
Incorrect — doubling up 'se' with a question word.
✅ Ele perguntou onde eu trabalhava.
He asked where I worked.
Key Takeaways
- Yes/no questions are reported with se ("whether/if"): Perguntou se eu vinha.
- Wh-questions keep their question word (onde, o que, por que, quanto...) and add nothing else.
- Never use both se and a question word together.
- The embedded clause uses statement word order (subject before verb) and no question mark.
- A past reporting verb triggers backshift; a present reporting verb does not.
- The reporting se takes the indicative, never the subjunctive.
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Reported (Indirect) Speech: OverviewB1 — How to turn someone's exact words into a report in Brazilian Portuguese — the reporting verbs dizer/falar que and perguntar se, plus the pronoun, time, and place shifts that come with changing perspective.
- Tense Shifts in Reported SpeechB1 — The backshift system for Brazilian Portuguese — when the reporting verb is past, present becomes imperfect, preterite becomes pluperfect, future becomes conditional, and commands become 'que' + imperfect subjunctive.
- Reporting Commands and RequestsB1 — How to report an imperative in Brazilian Portuguese — turning a direct command into 'pedir/mandar/dizer que' + subjunctive (tense matching the reporting verb), or the colloquial 'pra + infinitive' that BR speech prefers.
- Interrogative Que vs O Que: WhatA1 — When to use que and when to use o que to ask 'what' in Brazilian Portuguese, plus the accented o quê at the end of a sentence.
- Imperfeito do Subjuntivo: UsageB1 — When to use the imperfect subjunctive in Brazilian Portuguese — hypothetical 'se' clauses, past-tense triggers, 'como se', and softened wishes.