BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

2 whethers in one sentence

This topic has expert replies
Post new topic Locked
Previous Topic Next Topic
User avatar
Community Manager
Posts: 156
Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2007 6:06 am
Location: Mumbai, India
Thanked: 16 times
Followed by:3 members
GMAT Score:700

2 whethers in one sentence

by viidyasagar » Sat Jan 02, 2010 6:29 am
Want to know whether the following sentence needs correction or not

Source: Primary objective in the CR bible


Determine whether a stimulus contains an argument or if it is just a set of factual statements


Is the "if" correct here??? can a statement have 2 "whethers"

How about
"Determine whether a stimulus contains an argument or is it just a set of factual statements"

SC experts, kindly offer help

Tx
Top
Source: — Sentence Correction |
User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:08 am
Location: India
Thanked: 36 times
Followed by:5 members
GMAT Score:730

by mohit11 » Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:16 pm
viidyasagar wrote:Want to know whether the following sentence needs correction or not

Source: Primary objective in the CR bible


Determine whether a stimulus contains an argument or if it is just a set of factual statements


Is the "if" correct here??? can a statement have 2 "whethers"

How about
"Determine whether a stimulus contains an argument or is it just a set of factual statements"

SC experts, kindly offer help

Tx
I am not expert, but i'll give it a shot. firstly the part before and after "or" should have similar construction. Hence there is no need to use whether again

"Determine whether a stimulus contains an argument or if it is just a set of factual statements"

"Determine whether X or Y, we should use if in "Y part of the sentence" because if here represents uncertainty or conditionality.
Top
User avatar
MBA Student
Posts: 403
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2009 7:32 pm
Thanked: 98 times
Followed by:22 members

by fibbonnaci » Sat Mar 13, 2010 10:46 pm
'If' need not be used. the term 'Whether' is sufficient to employ the choices.
Moreover 'If' when used as a conditional also needs the 'then' clause. If X then Y. however in our sentence we do not have any clause that supports the 'If' clause.

Whether X or Y, here X and Y need to be parallel.
I would rewrite the sentence this way:
Determine whether a stimulus contains an argument or just a set of factual statements

Here the parallelism occurs after 'contains'. Rewritten it would read,

Determine whether a stimulus contains an argument
OR
Determine whether a stimulus contains just a set of factual statements.
Top
Post new topic Locked
• Page 1 of 1