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Can you turn "would have" sentences into questions? I don't think I've ever heard people use it to ask questions. Is "would have" strictly for answering questions or conditionals? Here are some examples I've come up with:

I wouldn't have told you if I weren't going to tell you.

Turning this into a question:

Would I have told you if I weren't going to tell you?

Another example:

If I hadn't done it, I wouldn't have boasted about it.

Turning this into a question form:

Would I have boasted about it if I hadn't done it?

Are these constructions possible?

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    Maybe "Would I have told you if I hadn't (already) planned {on telling/to tell} you?" or "Would I have told you had I not (already) planned {on telling/to tell} you?" would be better. You've already done what you asked about, so you've answered your own question. This kind of question is natural & idiomatic English.
    – user264
    Commented May 26, 2013 at 5:32

1 Answer 1

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Those constructions are natural and idiomatic.

However, for me, the first example,

I wouldn't have told you if I weren't going to tell you.

required me to reread it, since I initially parsed the sentence with:

to tell <somebody> <something>

instead of

to tell <somebody>.

By rearranging the parts of that phrase, it gets rid of that confusion;

If I weren't going to tell you, I wouldn't have told you.



You can similarly change positive "would have" statements into questions.

So,

If it had been sunny yesterday, he would have gone to the movies.

and

He would have gone to the movies if it had been sunny yesterday.

can be transformed into:

Would he have gone to the movies if it had been sunny yesterday?

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