a) you
b) you would
c) would you
d) if you
Why on earth ___________ have done such a thing?
- you
- you would
- would you
- if you
The correct answer to the question is ‘why on earth would you have done such a thing?’. We use the sentence structure would have (+ the past participle of the verb) when we want to talk about an event that didn’t happen or a hypothetical situation, in the past. For example,
- I would have gone to the party but I was really sick last weekend.
- They would have driven to the test but their car broke down.
To ask a question using this sentence structure we have to put would before the subject, she would becomes would she. For example,
- Would you have watched the match if you weren’t working?
- Why would they have left without saying goodbye?
This is why we choose option (3) as the sentence is referring to a hypothetical situation in the past. We choose (3) instead of (2) because we want to form an interrogative sentence, a question.
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