Here are the two ways to ask the same question:
- If <something is true>, [then] why there's no roof?
- If <something is true>, [then] why is there no roof?
([then] is only for clarification, in writing it is omitted)
Q1: do both 1 and 2 mean the same and make sense to you?
Q2: does 1 or 2 sounds broken to a native speaker? (I mean countries where English is the main language, like Britain, USA, English speaking Canada, Australia, New Zealand). In other words, would you as a native speaker be surprised to hear something like this from another native speaker? Like a discomfort, ringing a bell, thinking "is this man a foreign spy?"
Q3: same as Q2, but would you cringe to read something like this in a fiction book?
Q4: same as Q3, but for historically non-English countries like India, or generally your impression as an internet user. I believe internet English is its own language, so non-native perspective is also interesting.
I am asking because I've noticed that ChatGPT corrects 1 -> 2, and my intuition says otherwise. My intuition comes from 15+ years of reading technical and fictional literature, browsing forums, and watching media in English, but I am by no means a scholar of English and don't live in an English-speaking country.
I've been told to read Why is the structure interrogative-which-word – subject – verb (including question mark) being used so often? Is it grammatical? but it is too technical for me, couldn't follow through.
If it really belongs to English-learners please tell and I will move it.