You say that someone asks a question.
Note that you do not say that someone 'says' a question.
1 reporting questions
You also use ask when you are reporting questions. After ask you usually use a noun group and an 'if'-clause or 'wh'-clause.
When you report a question to which the answer is 'yes' or 'no', you usually use ask with an 'if'-clause.
You can also use a clause beginning with 'whether'.
When you report a question to which the answer is not 'yes' or 'no'. you usually use ask with a 'wh'-clause.
WARNING: In the 'wh'-clause, the subject and the verb do not change places. You do not say, for example, 'He asked me when was the train leaving'. You say 'He asked me when the train was leaving'.
You can say that someone asks someone else their name or their age.
You can say that someone asks someone else the time.
You can also say that someone asks someone else's opinion about something.
You do not need to say who a question is addressed to if this is already clear from the context.
WARNING: You never use 'to' when mentioning who a question is addressed to. You do not say, for example, 'He asked to me my name'.
2 direct report
You can use ask when reporting directly what someone says.
3 reporting requests
You also use ask when you are reporting requests. When someone says that they want to be given something, you report this using ask and for. For example, if a man says 'Can I have a bunch of roses?', you report this as 'He asked for a bunch of roses'.
When someone says that they want to speak to another person, for example on the telephone, you say that they ask for that person.
When someone tells another person that they want them to do something, you report this using ask and either a 'to'-infinitive clause or an 'if'-clause.
