Whether they will scale back their orders to pre-2003 levels or stop

The issue here is whether they will do this or that. Therefore, a dilemma is involved and an answer to the dilemma is required. The correct diction for this expression is indeed whether or as Warriorguy correctly pointed out. If is used when you want to say, if this happens the other thing will happen. This means that if A happens then B will certainly happen. However, in the given context, it is not clear as to what will happen, if the proposed changes are fully implemented. Whether they will scale back or totally terminate is not made clear by using the conditional. That is why this goes better with the use of the ‘weather – or’ template

A is the correct answer because of the given reasons !!

daagh
can you please help with this question by elaborating on " if V/s whether"

I feel - whether is used when there is a choice and we use "if" in cases when there is a condition

i need help on this...If first whether has OR with it in Option A then why whether at the end of option A dont have OR with it?

Hi,

The correct sentence use "Whether they will scale back". So the whether is follows by a verb in the future simple tense.

I thought that "whether" and "if" would be interchangeable (although for two choices it's better to use "whether" rather than "if")

But you can't say "If they will scale back", because that conditional construction doesn't exit.

Then why is the "whether" in the correct sentence followed by a future simple?

Hi raffamaiden, this question isn't really testing on if vs whether usage; however, the distinction is quite clear:

if is used for a conditional sentence, whereas whether is used when the intent is to depict a choice, an alternative or a possibility.

From a grammar perspective, the if portion of a conditional construct, will never have a would/will.

So, for example, following would be incorrect:

If Peter will work hard, he will score well.

Correct construct is:

If Peter works hard, he will score well.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses this topic of if vs whether. Have attached the corresponding section of the book, for your reference.

Hi rocko911 and raffamaiden

My two cents:

1. The question does not seem very GMAT like. The reason I say this is that GMAT questions don't usually have correct answers that have pronouns such as "they" and "us" without actual nouns that such pronouns refer to. Also, I am not a 100% happy with how the correct answer is constructed - particularly the latter part (again - could be wrong here). However, to keep the discussion pertinent to the thread, I will comment on some of the questions asked.

2. For rocko911 : Meaning wise, the first whether scenario has two distinct outcomes related with it. So, the two outcomes are:

a. Company may scale back
b. Company may stop doing business with the concerned party altogether

As you can see, the second outcome (outcome b) is very specific in nature. You cannot understand/or think about this outcome unless it is specifically expressed.

However, with the second use of whether, the second outcome is more or less understood. So, what are the two outcomes for the second whether:

a. changes are fully implemented
b. changes are not fully implemented

So, the answer to your question about the usage of "or" with the first whether is that the author of the sentence wanted to give us the second outcome clearly as it cannot be understood automatically. However, with the second one, the alternate scenario is quite clear and hence does not need to be stated explicitly. For example:

1. Whether he gets the job or is wait-listed for the position is irrelevant to his friends.
2. Whether he gets the job (or he does not get the job) is irrelevant to his friends.

As you can see, in the first case, the "waitlist" part couldn't have been understood had the author not mentioned it explicitly. However, in the second sentence, the "or not" part is understood. Of course, the two sentences above mean entirely different things. So, one cannot say that the second sentence is a better or more concise version of the first one.

To sum it with a bit of humor, whether the author uses the "or" part in a whether construction usually depends on whether the "or" part adds something else to the meaning of the sentence.

3. For raffamaiden: Whether and If cannot be used interchangeably on the GMAT. It's not about preference, it's about the intended meaning. If you want to convey choices/alternate scenarios, please use "whether". If you want to convey outcomes of a particular circumstance, use "if". Let's take a scenario that we will exploit one time by using "if" and one time by using "whether".

a. If he calls me, I will talk to him. - Concentrate on the "if" part. In the "if" portion, he DOES call me. There is no other condition.
b. My talking to him depends on whether he calls me (or not). - Concentrate on the "whether" part. In the whether portion, there are two scenarios implied - he does call me and he does NOT call me.

I hope the above discussion helps.

Cheers!

NS

why is "changes" singular? should it not be that changes have been proposed?

The structure is actually this:

...their management has proposed changes.

So, changes is not the subject but the object. The subject is management and hence, singular verb has has been used.

GMATNinja sir generis sir aragonn Kindly explain this question......

Hi Charles,

Idiom:- WhetherX or Y

In your stated example it seems clear that "X" is parallel to "Y"

Example :-Because the household food supplies were extremely limited, Tim couldn't decide whether to feed his children or to feed his parakeet."Because the household food supplies were extremely limited, Tim couldn't decide whether to feed his children or to feed his parakeet."

However, In this particular question the usage is bit different and confusing
(A) Whether they will scale back their orders to pre-2003 levels or stop doing business with us altogether depends on whether the changes that their management has proposed will be fully implemented.

They will scale back their orders to pre-2003 levels doesn't seems parallel with stop doing business


Could you please further explain the construction of the correct choice.

GMATNinja

Excellent question! Typically, when you see a parallel marker such as "or" you want to see what comes after the marker and then work backwards to see if you can find a word or phrase that plays the same role (more on parallelism and meaning in this video). Let's take another look at the relevant portion of (A):

"Whether they will scale back their orders to pre-2003 levels or stop doing business with us..."

The first thing to note is what follows "or." "Stop" is a verb. Now you want to work backwards to see if you can find another verb that "stop" can be parallel to. "Whether they will scale back their orders to pre-2003 levels or stop doing business with us..." Sure enough, there's "scale." So we have a parallel construction.

Next, you'd evaluate whether those actions are logically parallel; it turns out that this construction makes perfect sense. Option 1: scale back orders; option 2: stop doing business. So (A) is fine.

Just be aware that if you have two parallel verb phrases, for example, it doesn't have to be the case that every single component of those phrases is exactly the same. Parallelism is about function and logic, not hunting for identical constructions.

I hope that helps!

In this question, the only thing tested is the rules of usage for the two words "Whether" and "If", and different kinds of usages for them. Thankfully, in this question, all you need to know about the usage of "If", is that it should be used only if the statement talks about more than 2 things.

In both the sentences in this question, there are only two things being compared/talked about, so any option that has "If" in the place of "Whether" can right away be eliminated.

So, Options B & D are eliminated.

Option C is phrased very poorly. If you want to eliminate this option grammatically, then look at how this answer option starts. "Their either scaling back..." is incorrect. It should be "They are" either scaling back. There are a bunch of other issues with this answer option, but I am not going to go in depth with them in this post.

So, Option C can also be eliminated.

We are left with Options A and E.

Now, you need to know and apply the rules of usage of the word "Whether" in order to arrive at the correct answer here.

Correct Usages:

1. Whether X or Y.
2. Whether X (Implied that the only other option is "Not X").
3. Whether or not (This can be used interchangeably with the word "Regardless"). Ex: Whether or not it rains today, I am going to leave to Office by 7AM.

Incorrect Usage:

1. Whether X, or not X. Using it this way brings the meaning of "Regardless", hence usage of this sort is incorrect.

In Option E, "Whether or Not" is used. In this context, you're trying to say, "Scaling back or Shutting down" is dependent on either the changes being implemented, or not being implemented.

i.e. usage of the word "Whether" is to say Whether "X" or "Not X". So, Whether or not should not be used, It should just be Whether.

So, option E can also be eliminated. Option A is the correct Answer.

This can be understood by knowing the difference between Whether and If.

If: Used for conditions
Whether : Used for choices and in sentences where the intention is regardless

e.g.
Let me know if you're playing - In this sentence, the author is trying to say to let him know if you're playing. If you don't tell the author then he'll assume that you're not playing.
Let me know whether you're playing (or not) - Here the author is asking you to tell him if you're playing or you're not playing. So, you've to tell the author regardless. The use of (or not) is optional in English (and redundant in GMAT) because whether is giving you a choice anyway.

Regardless use of whether:
I'm playing whether you're playing or not. - Here the author is trying to communicate that he is going to play even if you play or even if you don't play. Here the use of or not is compulsory because the author is not asking anything here but he's telling.

Now coming back to option choices:
A. Whether they will scale back their orders to pre-2003 levels or stop doing business with us altogether depends on whether the changes that their management has proposed will be fully implemented.--- Whether they will (scale back their orders to pre-2003 levels [or not] or stop doing business with us altogether) depends on whether the changes that their management has proposed will be fully implemented. This choice is perfect!!

B. Whether they scale back their orders to pre-2003 levels or whether they discontinue their business with us altogether depends on the changes their management has proposed, if fully implemented or not. - Usage of if is wrong for giving the choices

C. Their either scaling back their orders in the future to pre-2003 levels, or their outright termination of business with us, depends on their management’s proposed changes being fully implemented or not. -- This choice is rather wordy. If I had to write this choice, I would've written it down as :
Their either scaling back their orders in the future to pre-2003 levels, or their outright termination of business with us, depends on the changes proposed by their management.

D. Whether they will scale back their orders to pre-2003 levels or stop doing business with us altogether depends if the changes that their management has proposed become fully implemented -- if [...] then whether [...] or whether [...], if [...] usage is completely wrong.

E. They will either scale back their orders to pre-2003 levels, or they will stop doing business with us altogether dependent on whether the changes their management has proposed will be fully implemented, or not. -- No helping verb before dependent, usage of or not is not redundant in GMAT.

So (A) is the correct answer choice.

GMATNinja
Hi Charles,
Thanks a lot for nice explanation.in "whether X or Y depends on whether that" construction,do X and Y work as a noun?.

Posted from my mobile device

I'm not sure I follow your question, but I think "X" and "Y" need to contain verbs in that structure.

It would be incorrect to say, "Whether dogs or cats depends on whether..."

However, this would be okay: "Whether dogs stay at home or run away depends on whether their owners feed them bacon." Here we have a parallel list of verbs ("stay" and "run"), and the subject of those verbs is "dogs."

Let us know if that doesn't answer your question!