Learn French: Il demande pourquoi le téléphone ne fonctionne plus. - He asks why the phone no longer functions.

Il demande pourquoi le téléphone ne fonctionne plus.

He asks why the phone no longer functions.

Breakdown of Il demande pourquoi le téléphone ne fonctionne plus.

(not) anymore / no longer

Questions & Answers about Il demande pourquoi le téléphone ne fonctionne plus.

Why is there no subject-verb inversion after pourquoi?

This is an indirect question. When you report what someone asks using phrases like il demande (he asks), the question becomes part of a normal statement. You use standard subject-verb order (le téléphone ne fonctionne plus), and you drop the question mark.

Since this is reported speech, do I need to change the tense of the second verb?

Not here. Because the introductory verb is in the present tense (il demande), the tense in the reported part stays exactly the same as the original direct question. Since the phone is currently broken, it stays in the present tense (fonctionne).

How does the negative phrase ne ... plus work in this sentence?

The negative pair ne ... plus means "no longer" or "not anymore". Just like ne ... pas, it wraps around the conjugated verb. Here, it surrounds fonctionne to show that the phone used to work, but doesn't right now.

Could I use marche instead of fonctionne here?

Absolutely! In conversational French, marcher is very commonly used to say that a device or machine "works". Saying pourquoi le téléphone ne marche plus would sound very natural and slightly less formal.