Whether or if
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WHETHER OR IF? A presentation by Lola Domínguez
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Transcript of Whether or if
WHETHER OR IF?
A presentation by Lola Domínguez
WHETHER OR IF?
Choosing between these two conjunctions becomes a problem for most English language students.
Whether to use “whether” or whether to use “if”.That is the question…
WHETHER OR IF?
When it comes to picking up one of them, there are three possibilities:
A. That both are possible
B. That only “whether” is possible
C. That only “if” is possible
A. BOTH ARE POSSIBLE
1. With indirect yes/no - questions
-She asked if/whether I liked her new haircut.
A. BOTH ARE POSSIBLE
2. When two alternatives are given and “or” is used.
-I would like to know whether she tells the truth or she is a liar. (formal)
-I would like to know if she tells the truth or she is a liar. (informal)
B. USE ONLY WHETHER
1. Before to - infinitive.
-“When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer “present” or “not guilty”.
Theodore Roosevelt
B. USE ONLY WHETHER
2. After a preposition.
-“There are doubts about whether the system is safe”.
3. Before “or not”.
-”When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not”
Mark Twain
B. USE ONLY WHETHER4. When the conjunction starts a clause that is the sentence subject or complement.
-“Whether you're an honest man, or whether you're a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief”.
Benjamin Franklin
-”I don´t care whether you sink or swim”
C. USE ONLY IFUse 'if' to introduce a condition in a conditional sentence. .
“If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized”.
Oscar Wilde
