If and Whether
If and Whether
Should I use if or should I use whether? The question has been pondered by careful writers for years.
The traditional advice has always been to use if when you have a conditional sentence and whether when you have two alternatives. There are lots of times when the words are interchangeable though. I’ll provide a few examples.
- The boss didn’t know whether the board meeting would be on Monday.
- The boss didn’t know if the board meeting would be on Monday.
You can see from these examples, that if or whether works. The board meeting may be on Monday or it may not. There are cases though where the words are not interchangeable. Here are a few examples of that.
- The boss didn’t know whether the board meeting would be Monday or Wednesday.
- The boss didn’t know if the board meeting would be on Monday or Wednesday.
We used whether in the first sentence because there are two alternatives. There is going to be a meeting, but the boss doesn’t know if it will be Monday or Wednesday.
In the second sentence, we used if because there is a possibility that the meeting won’t be on either day. The boss just doesn’t know it yet. In other words, he doesn’t know if it will happen at all. The sentence still works with if, but it raises the possibility of the meeting being canceled altogether. If whether is used, it indicates the meeting will take place and it will be on one of those two days.
If and whether are easy. Just remember, if you’re speaking of something that may or may not happen, use if. But if you’re talking about the option of two choices, use whether.
And if you want to read about more misused words, try this.
Summary
As a summary, you often see “or not” paired with whether. That is another frequently misused phrase. There is a time to use it and a time when it’s not needed. We’ll discuss that in another post.
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