While editing a client document yesterday, I came across the phrase whether or not. I realized that I’ve seen this plenty of times. In fact, the usage is so common, it comes up as a suggestion when you type whether into Google:
Here are a few examples of it in action:
- The city paused affordable housing projects six years ago, and now councillors are debating whether or not to bring it back. (CTV News)
- Interestingly, the perception of whether or not Canada has become more expensive did not vary by income level. (Financial Post)
- Whether or not the NBA’s Toronto Raptors take home the league championship after tonight’s basketball game, the team still faces a court battle of a very different kind. (Global News)
Despite its ubiquitousness, however, most of the time, it’s actually unnecessary. Often, whether implies both alternatives, which makes the or not redundant.
While it is often unnecessary, it isn’t always. If whether or not functions as an adverb, as it does in my third example, then keep it as is. Otherwise, drop the or not.
That might seem complicated, but one way to remember it is to replace whether or not with regardless of whether. If the sentence still makes sense, then you can use it. Otherwise, drop it.
Let’s look at my examples with the substitution.
- The city paused affordable housing projects six years ago, and now councillors are debating regardless of whether to bring it back. (CTV News)
- Interestingly, the perception of regardless of whether Canada has become more expensive did not vary by income level. (Financial Post)
- Regardless of whether the NBA’s Toronto Raptors take home the league championship after tonight’s basketball game, the team still faces a court battle of a very different kind. (Global News)
Now the first two examples don’t make any sense, so you can drop or not. The third example still makes sense, so you can keep or not.
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