I was composing an email at work asking for clarification on an issue. I listed several pieces of information I wanted to see in the reply. One item was an overview of the issue. In parenthesis I specified “why aren’t these numbers populating”. It didn’t seem logical to include a parenthetical question to clarify a statement, so I looked to reword the clarification. Hey, I thought, if I move the word “aren’t” to the right a couple of slots, it becomes “why these numbers aren’t populating”. A question becomes succinct statement of clarification by moving one word around in the middle.
Yes, I know it is a sentence fragment, but still - ain’t English grand? Complicated, confusing, often nonsensical, but grand all the same.
Probably “why” should always start a question.
But the reason “aren’t” changes the meaning is…
Just replace “why” with the statement form , “The cause of”
a. “The cause of the aren’t the numbers increasing.”
b. “The cause of the numbers are’nt increasing.”
So we need to change the aren’t to just not.
a. “The cause of the not the numbers increasing.”
b. “The cause of the numbers not increasing.”
A was only the correct grammer for the question word “why”.