99. Meanings of “whether … or …”

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“Whether… or…” may show indirect questions, denied conditions, or a pair of simple alternatives

THE COMPLICATIONS OF “whether … or … “

Whether… or… is one of various ways of signalling the existence of alternatives (see 266. Indicating Alternatives, #1). It is also one of the combinations mentioned in these pages in 64. Double Conjunctions, alongside such pairs as both… and… and either… or… . However, it seems to be more complicated than the other double conjunctions, and hence worthy of closer attention in a post to itself.

One special feature of whether… or… is its inability to stand alone as a sentence. Although there usually has to be a verb (mentioned or “understood”) after whether and another verb after or, there still needs to be at least one more verb in the sentence in order to make it complete. In grammatical terms, whether… or… introduces two “subordinate” clauses, and hence cannot supply the “main verb” that all sentences need. Most other double conjunctions supply either a main verb alongside a subordinate one or two main verbs.

Grammar books tend to say that whether… or… has two separate uses: in indirect questions and in conditional sentences. I feel, though, that there is a third one too: more like either… or… than anything else. I aim here to describe all three of these uses and to indicate when whether… or… should be used instead of whether, if… or… and either… or… .

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USAGE IN INDIRECT QUESTIONS

As a question word, whether always makes indirect rather than direct questions (see 285. Complexities of Question Words, #5). The use with or corresponds to two direct questions with or between them and no question word, like this:

(a) Do you wish to proceed or (do you wish to) cancel?

Direct questions without a question word are familiar to most learners of English as “yes/no” questions as they expect an answer of “yes” or “no”. However, when they are linked by or this description is misleading, since often the expected answer is no longer “yes” or “no”, but instead needs to be a repetition of one of the two verbs – for example either (I wish) to proceed above or (I wish) to cancel (see 297. Types of Response to a Question, #4).

The indirect equivalent of (a) would normally need some accompanying words signalling its indirectness, such as I wonder… or The question is… (see 219. Wording next to Indirect Questions). The first question would then start whether (or if) you wish…, without do, the second with or (you wish)… (see 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing).

Like most indirect questions, those with whether… or… usually occupy noun positions in sentences. In the object position, they tend to follow a verb of asking, explaining or not knowing, like WONDER, SHOW, TELL or DOUBT, rather than one of knowing like UNDERSTAND. Usage after a preposition is often linked to an adjective, like this:

(b) Jones (2018, p. 62) is interested in whether…

Negative adjectives seem particularly likely to precede a whether… question, with or without or… . Common examples are doubtful, uncertain, unclear and unsure. The linking preposition is usually about or as to, but is often left out (see “Expansion with that” in 203. Expanding an Adjective with Words after it).

One other way in which whether… or… questions (and simple whether… ones) differ from other indirect questions is in the inability of whether to be paraphrased with a noun (see 185. Noun Synonyms of Question Words).

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USAGE LIKE CONDITIONAL “if”

This use of whether… or… again links two verbs with a third, but is adverb-like rather than noun-like – it is outside the typical noun positions in a sentence of subject, object and complement. Examples are:

(c) Whether they WON or LOST, the children received a prize.

(d) Drug-smuggling WILL CONTINUE whether supply IS TARGETED or demand (IS TARGETED).

The relation to conditional if sentences is closer in (c) than (d). Sentence (c) is an example of what I call “condition-denying”. A condition is something that must happen or exist before something else can happen or exist (see 118. Problems with Conditional “if”). In sentence (c), the whether… or… part contains a logically possible condition for the occurrence of the main event: winning something is usually a condition for receiving a prize. However, the use of whether…or… denies a link between these two events.

Sentence (d), on the other hand, does not contain a denied condition: neither targeting supply nor targeting demand is a logical condition for drug-smuggling to continue. Rather, they are logical conditions for it to stop.

What the two sentences above have in common is that they deny the relevance of the whether… or… ideas to the main one: they say that the main one is not affected by these ideas. This meaning is confirmed by the fact that in both cases whether can follow both regardless of and no matter, two common means of showing unimportance or irrelevance (see 199. Importance and Unimportance).

It is notable that in both sentences the two possibilities combined by whether… or… are mutually exclusive opposites. In (c) there is no other possibility than winning and losing; in (d) supply and demand are the only areas that can be controlled. In (c), this situation means we can infer that a prize was received by all of the children. In (d), we infer that drug-smuggling cannot be stopped at all.

The exclusiveness of the two ideas linked by whether… or… seems to be a necessary feature of its adverb-like use. If we wish to assert the irrelevance of two logically possible conditions that are not the only ones, if seems a more likely choice. Consider this:

(f) Demand for some products will not fall if prices rise or substitutes appear.

Knowing that other factors can cause demand to fall, such as fashion, we would perhaps prefer if here to whether.

Sometimes the condition-denying use of whether can be paraphrased with other wording. If two opposite adjectives with BE are involved, be it or be they is an option (see 88. Exotic Grammar Structures 1, #6). If two nouns are involved, we could use come… or… (see 228. Exotic Grammar Structures 5, #4).

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USAGE LIKE “either … or …”

In this third use, neither of the words whether… or… is followed by a verb, and either… or… will also be grammatically possible. An example is:

(g) Success is possible whether/either through hard work or basic ability.

Note that whether… or… only equates to either… or… when no verbs are involved. Either… or… with verbs cannot be replaced by whether… or… in a sentence like the following:

(h) Clients can either PAY immediately or WAIT until they depart.

The difference between either and whether in sentences like (g) seems to be the level of importance that they give to the alternatives listed after them. Either suggests that they are being communicated to the reader as important new information, whereas whether may imply that the reader already knows them, the more important point of the sentence being the message of the preceding words – success is possible in (g).

Consider this further example:

(i) Please write clearly, either in ink or pencil.

Either seems better here if the speaker assumes the addressees do not yet know that ink and pencil are the allowed means of writing, so that the sentence is providing this information. Whether seems preferable, on the other hand, if the addressees have already been informed of the allowed possibilities, the need to write clearly being the primary message. The custom of saying something that the addressee is expected to know already is widespread in English: for other examples, see 156. Mentioning what the Reader Knows Already.

This difference between the meanings of whether and either may affect the punctuation before them. Whether seems to need a comma most of the time. Either may have one only to show that the information before is being given as much focus as that after, rather than less. Thus, in (i) the comma before either means that two instructions of equal focus are being given (the need to write clearly and the need to use ink or a pencil), whereas in its absence the second instruction would be receiving more focus.

One final noteworthy point is that both either… or… and whether… or… can be ambiguous in the same way. They might show either that only one of the alternatives is the right one (the speaker not being sure which) or that there is a free choice between them. Both meanings seem possible in (g), but (i) has only the latter.

98. “Very”, “Much” & “Very Much”

Choosing between “very”, “much” & “very much” depends more on the kind of word with them than on what they mean

THE CLOSENESS OF “VERY”, “MUCH” AND “VERY MUCH”

It is easy to mix up very, much and very much. Which are possible below?

(a) The audience was … happy to participate.

(b) Grammar needs to be explained … clearly.

(c) The engine performance was … improved.

(d) Grammar can sometimes bring … difficulty.

(e) Fuel was expensive but the engine did not need … .

(f) Grammar can be enjoyed … .

In (a) and (b) you can only say very. In (c), (d) and (e) it would be wrong to use very instead of much or very much. In (f) you can only say very much. In this post I want to try and explain what makes the different forms right or wrong.

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WAYS OF EXPLAINING WORD DIFFERENCES

Differences between words are not always of the same kind (see 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words). Some are of meaning (e.g. between important and essential, the latter being stronger), some are of possible partner words (e.g. between large and great, the former being right before scale, the latter before interest), and some are of grammar (e.g. but when a conjunction is needed versus however when the need is for a connector – see 40. Conjunctions versus Connectors).

The difference between very, much and very much seems to involve partly meaning (very much is usually stronger than much), but mostly grammar, in particular the grammatical class (“part of speech”) of the accompanying word. This is not such a rare thing: similar influences are considered in this blog in 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”,  169. “All”, “Each” and “Every” and 215. Naming Exceptions.

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USE OF “VERY”, “MUCH” & “VERY MUCH” BEFORE ADJECTIVES & ADVERBS

It is often not possible to use much or very much before adjectives and adverbs. This is the reason why only very[i] is correct in (a) and (b) above: happy is an adjective and clearly is an adverb. Note in particular the need to avoid very much, as combinations like *very much happy are a very common grammar error (a similar rule operates with the word too: before an adjective or adverb there is no possibility of adding much). Note also that no word at all, not even very, is logically possible with strong (“non-gradable”) adjectives like brilliant, dead, delicious, ecstatic, essential, impossible, perfect and unique (see 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words, #3).

Obviously, differences based on word classes like “adjectives” and “adverbs” make it important to be able to recognise those word classes. Other parts of this blog that give advice on recognising adjectives and adverbs include 255. Nouns Made from Adjectives,  283. Lesser-Known Features of Adjectives and 120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs.

The need to avoid much with adjectives may appear to be contradicted by sentences like (c):

(c) The engine performance was much improved.

The reason why much and not very is correct here is that improved is a verb, not an adjective. The reason why it can easily be mistaken for an adjective is that the -ed and -ing verb endings are also common on adjectives, thus necessitating very instead of much, as in this example:

(g) The audience was very interested in participating.

This, of course, raises the question of how one can tell whether a particular -ed or -ing word is an adjective or a verb. Checking in a dictionary will always help, but there are also some tests that can be applied: see 245. Adjectives with a Participle Ending. There are occasions, however, where a particular -ed or -ing word could be either an adjective or a verb, leading to different possible interpretations (see 257. Structures with a Double Meaning 4, #5).

Other -ed words that can be used as an adjective with very include advanced, bored, educated, marked, pleased, pointed, stressed, surprised and tired. Those that need much because they are probably just verbs include appreciated, discussed, improved, liked, loved, maligned, praised, recovered and watched. There are also some -ed words that seem able to take either much or very, perhaps because they are verbs halfway towards becoming adjectives. Examples are acquainted, admired, amused, confused, distracted, impressed, involved, occupied and respected.

There is a similar situation with -ing words. In the following sentence, is very correct or much?

(h) The team are lucky to keep their … suffering supporters.

The more likely possibility here is much. Change suffering to uncomplaining, though, and very is needed instead. Other -ing words allowing only much include improving and talking. Those preferring very, which seem more numerous, include amusing, boring, confusing, demanding, distracting, engaging, entertaining, hard-working, inspiring, promising, satisfying, striking and taxing. Ones that might allow either much or very are differing and discriminating.

One final complication is that there is actually one situation where the rule for adjectives and adverbs is reversed, ruling out very and calling for much or very much. This is when the adjective or adverb is in the comparative or superlative form: one can say (very) much better, (very) much more difficult, (very) much the best and (very) much the most difficult. There are some other possibilities besides (very) much, such as far, but not very (see 194. Adverbs that Say How Much).

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USE OF “VERY”, “MUCH” & “VERY MUCH” BEFORE OTHER KINDS OF WORD

1. Before Nouns

Sentence (d) above has a noun (difficulty) after (very) much rather than an adjective or adverb. This changes the word class of (very) much too: from adverb to “determiner” (an adjective-like word similar to the – see 110. Nouns without “a” or “the”). Very cannot change like this: with the meaning above, it is only an adverb, which means it cannot be used by itself in front of nouns (with a different meaning, however, it can go before nouns – see 256. Unusual Meanings of Familiar Words, #9).

The determiner use of (very) much is possible only with uncountable nouns (it has a plural, [very] many, that goes with plural countable ones). Quite often it needs the sentence as a whole to be negative or a question, like this:

(i) Children should not be given (very) much salt.

To make a positive statement here, one would have to say something like plenty of instead of much (see 310. Aspects of Negation, #7).

Some -ing words after much are noun-like rather than adjective-like. Consider this:

(j) Much walking was necessary.

Walking here is not adjective-like in the way that suffering in (h) is, because it has no accompanying noun – like supporters – to describe. Instead, walking is noun-like, the subject of the verb was. Speaking technically, it is a “gerund” rather than a “participle” (see 71. Gerund and Participle Uses of “-ing”). Gerunds can have (very) much but not very.

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2. Before “Like” & “Unlike”

One of the uses of like and unlike is prepositional for making comparisons (see 56. Comparing with “Like” and “Unlike”). Like used in this way can directly follow both much and very (also a little, exactly, just, quite and somewhat), but unlike allows only very (plus a little, quite and somewhat):

(k) Public speakers have to perform much/very like actors. (BUT … very unlike …).

The need for very or similar to express the meaning of “extremely” before (un)like is unexpected: with most other prepositions this meaning is expressed by a different word, e.g. right by…, well inside…, far beyond (see 262. Adverbs that Describe a Preposition).

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3. With no Following Word

In sentences (e) and (f) above, much is not combined with any following word. In (e) it is a pronoun: it occupies a typical noun position in its sentence – here the object of need – and it stands for the same thing as a nearby noun – here fuel (see 28. Pronoun Errors). Used as a pronoun, much is often in a negative sentence (cf. did not need in the example), where It can be accompanied by very (but not replaced by it) with practically no meaning change. In positive sentences, it normally seems unable to be the last word, plenty being preferred.

In sentence (f), much is an adverb meaning greatly (it cannot be an object because the verb can be enjoyed allows no object since it is passive). It is a different kind of adverb, however, from the above-considered kind used before adjectives and other adverbs, saying something about the verb instead (see 194. Adverbs that Say How Much). If used in a positive statement, it must be placed after the verb and accompanied by very.

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[i]Many other words can be used instead of very, though. Increasingly, one hears so, which traditionally suggested that the strength of the adjective was already familiar to the hearer (see 156. Mentioning what the Reader Knows Already, #5). Other possibilities are more colourful or precise. Some, like extremely, go with practically any adjective, while others go with special ones, e.g. seriously with ill (see 194. Adverbs that Say How Much).