Knowing how to ask questions in a foreign language is a basic ability that will have different functions depending on the context. In general, it serves to expand information and it can be formulated directly or indirectly.

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With direct questions we request directly the information that we need. However, indirect questions are used when we are not asking directly because we want to use more formal language or be more polite. But if you want to be even more polite, you can use the conditional.

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It is very important to know how to differentiate what type of questions we are asking because the grammatical structure is different. The direct question follows the normal patterns depending on whether the verb is normal or special. However, indirect questions can be asked in two different ways: 1) embedded questions (e.g. do you know in how many countries English is spoken?) and 2) questions in indirect speech (such as I wonder in how many countries English is spoken).