How to Use what if in a Sentence

what if

1 of 2 phrase

• And what if that account could produce a sizable return in just six months?
  — Matt Richardson, CBS News, 30 July 2026
• Wall Street asks, what if hyperscaler capex is more of a problem than a solution?
  — Jim Edwards, Fortune, 29 July 2026
• Instead of making your body do all the pulling, reaching and twisting, what if the clothing could move into place on its own?
  — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 26 July 2026
• However, what if most projects exceed the carrying capacity and there are no solutions to increase it?
  — Dp Opinion, Denver Post, 29 July 2026
• And what if the difference between extending the party or flying home is a raft of games that neither they nor their nation are involved in or capable of controlling?
  — Phil Hay, New York Times, 26 June 2026
• And what if single people started treating dates as adventures—opportunities to get to know someone new and do something different?
  — Faith Hill, The Atlantic, 24 July 2026
• So, dear reader, what if the elusive Lady Whistledown herself had observed the frenzy surrounding the wedding of the season?
  — Bryan West, USA Today, 7 July 2026
• And then when the material for Bleed American came together, the challenging, rewarding thing for me was what if those restrictions were a whole lot more narrow?
  — Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 24 July 2026
• This helpful challenge can create clarity around the viability of strategic objectives and determine the actions required to reach them - enhancing the resilience of the organization to a range of ‘what if’ scenarios.
  — Anna Marks, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026
• In the context of the 2026 finals, what if continuing in the tournament relies entirely on FIFA’s third-place table?
  — Phil Hay, New York Times, 26 June 2026

what-if

2 of 2 noun

• With the draft, the what-if game is one that swings both ways.
  — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 24 June 2024
• The full what-if mailbag is available for you here.
  — Levi Weaver, New York Times, 3 June 2026
• Otherwise, the what-if blues would’ve stung a lot longer.
  — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Apr. 2026
• Tax season always seems to start off with some kind of quirky, what-if component.
  — Susan Tompor, The Enquirer, 12 June 2024
• Playing the what-if game with Nix won’t heal any pain for the Broncos.
  — Nick Kosmider, New York Times, 26 Jan. 2026
• Conforto came around to score, but the other what-if was bigger.
  — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Apr. 2026
• For nine years, May 28 evoked a franchise-haunting what-if.
  — Joel Lorenzi, New York Times, 29 May 2026
• Practice the what-if conversation early, when trust is high and stakes are low.
  — Stephan Lendi, Forbes.com, 16 May 2025
• The Lakers are the ultimate what-if team in a conference full of what-ifs.
  — Dylan Hernández, Los Angeles Times, 5 Mar. 2023
• Its cast is exactly the sprightly ensemble needed to land its what-if laughs.
  — Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 20 Feb. 2026
• The three Canadians won silver medals, but all three had what-if moments in the final game.
  — Corey Masisak, Denver Post, 22 Feb. 2026
• The Giants have made countless trades that were dandies, but the bad ones present what-if scenarios that can be tough for fans to stomach.
  — John Shea, San Francisco Chronicle, 30 Apr. 2023
• And a big, ol’ what-if for Broncos Country given how close Denver was last year.
  — Parker Gabriel, Denver Post, 13 May 2026
• Any postmortem of a tough season-ending loss is going to include some lingering what-if moments.
  — Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 3 Feb. 2025
• Counterfactual history isn’t just a game of what-if.
  — Hal Brands, Foreign Affairs, 14 Feb. 2023
• Acuña to the Royals is the type of what-if move that would've had quite the snowball effect on MLB.
  — Andrew Wright, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Aug. 2025
• Again, no disrespect to DeVries, but that what-if might be one Indiana fans chew on for over a decade.
  — Brendan Marks, New York Times, 15 Jan. 2026
• Advertisement Early in the book, Poppy talks about the what-if factor.
  — Shannon Carlin, Time, 9 Jan. 2026
• The Minnesota Wild players are not playing hockey right now and still have a what-if nagging at them about injuries.
  — Corey Masisak, Denver Post, 25 May 2026
• However, the best ideas come out of thorough analysis and debating what-if scenarios.
  — Kate Wieczorek, Forbes.com, 27 Feb. 2026
• This may come in the form of a digital twin of the warehouse that performs what-if analyses of material flows and other systems and processes.
  — Manoj Gujarathi, Forbes, 10 Jan. 2025
• As a fascinating footnote of history, this obscure what-if offers an important lesson to the present.
  — Big Think, 29 Oct. 2025
• The supply chain disruption analysis utilizes what-if scenario modeling as a planning tool.
  — Dileep Rai, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2025
• This year, the what-if involves the possible expansion of the child tax credit, which likely would be retroactive to 2023.
  — Susan Tompor, The Enquirer, 12 June 2024
• After the Wildcats won in OT, Santa Clara was left wondering what-if.
  — Tim Rohan, NBC news, 23 Mar. 2026
• Cochrane, 52, and Porter, 43, turned the breezy online exchange into a what-if conversation.
  — John Branch, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2025
• Bigelow’s work is procedural to its core, and that this film is a speculative what-if is made all the more horrifying because of its banality.
  — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 2 Sep. 2025
• This means strategic planning can shift from producing static roadmaps to generating simulations and what-if models.
  — Catherine Iger, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2025
• Jess Gabor plays Christy’s teenage girlfriend, a thwarted first love who lingers as a great what-if in Christy’s life before resurfacing at a crucial time.
  — Joe Reid, Vulture, 6 Sep. 2025
• The technology also lags the market on scenario analysis and what-if optimization.
  — Lora Cecere, Forbes, 4 May 2023