Whether Vs. Whether or not

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Whether Vs. Whether or not

by scoobydooby » Fri Nov 21, 2008 10:44 am
Could someone please explain the usage of Whether and Whether or not, more specifically instances when the use of whether or not is justified

thanks

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Re: Whether Vs. Whether or not

by parallel_chase » Fri Nov 21, 2008 10:49 am
scoobydooby wrote:Could someone please explain the usage of Whether and Whether or not, more specifically instances when the use of whether or not is justified

thanks
IMO whether or not is a clear case of redundancy.

I think you should never use whether or not in GMAT.

Let me know if anybody thinks otherwise.
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by logitech » Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:01 am
“Whether” works fine on its own in most contexts: “I wonder whether I forgot to turn off the stove?” But when you mean “regardless of whether” it has to be followed by “or not” somewhere in the sentence: “We need to leave for the airport in five minutes whether you’ve found your teddy bear or not.”

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Re: Whether Vs. Whether or not

by iamcste » Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:23 pm
parallel_chase wrote:
scoobydooby wrote:Could someone please explain the usage of Whether and Whether or not, more specifically instances when the use of whether or not is justified

thanks
IMO whether or not is a clear case of redundancy.

I think you should never use whether or not in GMAT.

Let me know if anybody thinks otherwise.
PC is right. "Whether or not" is almost incorrect on GMAt

We use "whether to" in GMAT

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by iamcste » Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:27 pm
logitech wrote:“Whether” works fine on its own in most contexts: “I wonder whether I forgot to turn off the stove?” But when you mean “regardless of whether” it has to be followed by “or not” somewhere in the sentence: “We need to leave for the airport in five minutes whether you’ve found your teddy bear or not.”

Groovy! :D

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https://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/ ... tml#errors
"Whether or not" is not trusted on GMAT

MG SC pg. 124

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by lunarpower » Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:49 am
the short version:

you should not pick "whether or not" on the gmat.

end of story.

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the long version:

in spoken language, you'll sometimes see "whether NOUN VERB or not" tagged onto the end of the sentence for emphasis. for instance, there's the teddy bear sentence in the post above this one.
also:
there will be a food shortage this year, whether the government subsidizes farmers or not.
this would be fine in spoken language. however. in written language, it's considered overly informal, and should be replaced by something like this:
there will be a food shortage this year, regardless of whether the government subsidizes farmers.

it is extremely unlikely that you will have to make that sort of distinction. most likely, you'll just see a clean split between "whether" and "whether or not", and you should choose the former.
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