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whether or if?

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by beemzet » Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:17 am
Hi all,

The first decision for most tenants living in a building undergoing conversion to cooperative ownership is whether to sign a no-buy pledge with the other tenants.

Why can't we use IF instead of whether in this sentence?

thanx
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Re: whether or if?

by mleviko » Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:27 am
beemzet wrote:Hi all,

The first decision for most tenants living in a building undergoing conversion to cooperative ownership is whether to sign a no-buy pledge with the other tenants.

Why can't we use IF instead of whether in this sentence?

thanx
"If" introduces one condition, whereas "whether" introduces
alternative possibilities, usually with "or not" implied or expressed.
(source: https://grammartips.homestead.com/whether.html)

In the example you wrote, the "or not" is implied :
The first decision for most tenants living in a building undergoing conversion to cooperative ownership is whether to sign a no-buy pledge with the other tenants, or not.
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powerscore

by resilient » Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:54 pm
from powerscore and manhattan

Whether almost always beats if!
Appetite for 700 and I scraped my plate!
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by beemzet » Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:16 am
thanx
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by cjiang16 » Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:42 pm
Whether is always better
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by madhur sharma » Wed Jun 24, 2015 10:41 pm
why not c is the answer plz explain
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Thu Jun 25, 2015 5:07 am
We have a free article on if vs whether: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/articles/if-vs-whether

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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