word choice - To determine if or to determine whether?





When are “if” and “whether” equivalent?



Do these two have the same meaning:



  1. To determine if something is correct.

  2. To determine whether something is correct.



Answer



In familiar conversation, your two examples have the same meaning, but it's a better idea, in my opinion, to use 'whether' when you're introducing two possibilities like this, because it avoids potential ambiguity. For example, the following sentence is ambiguous if people use 'if' as a substitute for 'whether' :-).



Tell John if the car breaks down.



That ought to mean that somebody is only to tell John anything on the condition that the car breaks down. If you want to indicate that somebody is to tell John either way, you could use:



Tell John whether the car breaks down.



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