I'm not sure if this is something recent, although I've been noticing it much more frequently now than say a couple of years ago. Many times people will make a statement, but will have it in an Interrogative form. For example, I recently saw this sentence online:
Consider what are the consequences of not being great in your home.
This was the sentence construction; however, I would have though it would be more like this:
Consider what the consequences of not being great in your home are.
All I did was move the verb, "are" to the end of the sentence.
Why is it that this happens? Is this a recent development in language, or is it that I'm just now noticing it? If I were to use this interrogative form, would it be commonly considered correct in a formal setting?
Best Answer
Interrogative sentences may actually be declarative sentences, and not interrogative at all. (These pages seem helpful: http://www.k12reader.com/interrogative-sentences/ and http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/interrogative_sentence.htm)
A clearly interrogative sentence would be:
A declarative sentence would be:
I can't comment if this is a new or different style in recent times. However, if you're talking about articles in magazines or online, the declarative style appears to be more prevalent.
For example, if this is a women's magazine (I'm just guessing, could be a men's magazine or blog)... then the author appears to be telling you to consider what happens if you're not great at home. This is a more assertive tone.
If the author wanted a more gentle, discussive tone, then they would use a clearly interrogative sentence. Consider:
Option A (Interrogative sentence, less assertive tone)
Option B (Declarative sentence, assertive tone)