![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/japan-280x300.jpg\" "\\"japan\\"")
\u201cI don\u2019t know if you will find this post helpful\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t know if you will find this post helpful\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you spot the error in the preceding sentence?\u00a0 This error is common in casual spoken English, but it will cost you on the GMAT Sentence Correction.\u00a0 In that sentence, the word \u201cif\u201d is incorrect: it should be replaced by the word \u201cwhether.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The word \u201cif\u201d is used for clauses that specify conditions or speculate on something hypothetical.<\/p>\n
1.) Condition: \u201cIf you finish your peas, you can have dessert.\u201d<\/p>\n
2.) Hypothetical: \u201cIf I regularly ate my vegetables, I probably would be healthier.\u201d<\/p>\n
In formal logic, the clause following the \u201cif\u201d clause would begin with the word \u201cthen\u201d: that perfectly acceptable grammatically, but not at all necessary.\u00a0 For example, in both of those sentence, the word \u201cthen\u201d could be inserted right after the comma, and would add a bit of emphasis to the logical relationship, if that were something that needed underscoring.<\/p>\n
The last clause of the previous paragraph highlights a particular category of conditional statements, those using the subjunctive.\u00a0 For more on the subjunctive mood, see\u00a0this post<\/a>.\u00a0 The GMAT loves \u201cif\u201d-clauses involving the subjunctive.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The word \u201cwhether\u201d is a relative pronoun, which means it introduces a relative clause.\u00a0 A \u201cwhether\u201d clause is always about the uncertainty in a choice or alternative, and the clause itself may stand apart from the sentence, the way an \u201cif\u201d clause does, or may act as a noun.\u00a0 When it stands apart, it is like an \u201cif\u201d clause in which the definite causal nature has been replaced with uncertainty or irrelevance.\u00a0 When it acts as a noun, the clause may act as the subject of the sentence, or as the object of an epistemological verb (to know, to wonder, etc.)\u00a0 or a volitional verb (to care, to prefer, etc.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Stands apart:<\/strong><\/p>\n 3.) Whether you study French or Spanish, you will encounter an unfamiliar language in Japan.<\/p>\n 4.) Whether or not I get the raise, I am going to buy that new car.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Notice, in either of those: if we removed the uncertainty of the choice, we could replace the word whether with the word \u201cif\u201d to get a more definitive conditional statement.\u00a0 Without making those changes, the word \u201cif\u201d would be wrong.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Subject of sentence:<\/strong><\/p>\n 5.) Whether you like jazz will influence your opinion of this new club.<\/p>\n 6.) Whether I walk on her left or right side matters a great deal to her.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Object of an epistemological or volitional verb:<\/strong><\/p>\n 7.) I don\u2019t know whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe.<\/p>\n 8.) He doesn\u2019t care whether you serve broccoli or Brussels sprouts with dinner.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In sentence #5-8, the word \u201cif\u201d would be 100% incorrect.\u00a0\u00a0 The GMAT Sentence Correction loves to test that particular mistake.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The word \u201cwhether\u201d implies a choice, at least a pair of alternatives.\u00a0 Sometimes that choice is made explicit (as in sentences #6 and #8), and sometimes it is implicit (as in sentences #5 & #7).\u00a0 When the choice is implicit, is it grammatically correct to add the words \u201cor not\u201d after whether?<\/p>\n When the \u201cwhether\u201d clause acts as a noun, the words \u201cor not\u201d add absolutely nothing to the sentence. Consider:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 5a.) Whether you like jazz will influence your opinion of this new club.<\/p>\n 5b.) Whether or not you like jazz will influence your opinion of this new club.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The meaning of both sentences is exactly the same.\u00a0 The second sentence adds two more words that contribute zilch to the overall meaning of the sentence.\u00a0 What is GMAC\u2019s opinion of tossing in extra words that lengthen the sentence and contribute bupkis to the meaning?\u00a0 As you may well guess, they frown on these.\u00a0 Don\u2019t expect to see \u201cwhether or not\u201d in any correct GMAT SC answer choice when the clause is used as a noun.<\/p>\n When the clause stands apart, as in sentences #3 & #4, that\u2019s another matter.\u00a0 In that construction, the alternative must be made explicit.\u00a0 In #3 there already was an explicit comparison of the two languages, but in #4 we absolutely must include the words \u201cor not\u201d after the word \u201cwhether\u201d: the grammatical construction demands it.\u00a0 This is the only case in which the words \u201cwhether or not\u201d could be correct on GMAT sentence correction.<\/p>\n Whether or not you like it, knowing the correct use of \u201cwhether\u201d and \u201cif\u201d is important for GMAT Sentence Correction.\u00a0 If you can master these distinctions, you will perform well on a question that that befuddles many.<\/p>\n Two relevant SC questions in the GMAT Official Guide, which appear as:<\/p>\n a.) #34 & #75 in OG12e, and<\/p>\n b.) #34 & #78 in OG13e<\/p>\n This post was written by Mike McGarry, GMAT expert at\u00a0Magoosh<\/a>, and originally posted\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI don\u2019t know if you will find this post helpful\u201d Do you spot the error in the preceding sentence?\u00a0 This error is common in casual spoken English, but it will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[783,243,719,735],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-magoosh-blog","category-blog","category-sentence-correction-gmat","category-verbal-gmat-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11760"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11765,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11760\/revisions\/11765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}When to use \u201cwhether\u201d<\/h2>\n
Whether . . . or not<\/h2>\n