Say I paint my house red.
Then I said, the house should have been green.
How do I turn that into a question?
Should the house have been green?
or
Should the house be green?
or
should have the house been green?
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The first and second choices are reasonable, with slightly different connotation, but the third is not.– DrMoishe PippikCommented Jul 4, 2021 at 2:36
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1Why are you asking? Are you asking about the question form of that exact sentence? Why do you need it to be a question? Are you questioning your choice of paint colour?– gotube ♦Commented Jul 4, 2021 at 7:00
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Who are you asking? You already know that the house should have been green. And you’re the one who painted it red! This doesn’t makes much sense.– FeliniusRex - goneCommented Jul 6, 2021 at 0:52
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1 Answer
Simply asking “should the house have been green?” does not convey that it should have been. It leaves open both the option that it should have been green, and the option that it should have been something other than green.
To better convey that it should have been green you can say it with the following slight modification:
Shouldn’t the house have been green?
Phrased this way it is no longer presenting two equal possibilities. It is still asking the question, but it is asking from a perspective that favors one of the two possibilities — namely, that it should have been green.
