Clarification required on using 'as to'

Question

Could anyone tell me when to use 'as to' before 'whether'?
Should I write a sentence without 'as to' before 'whether' or should I replace 'as to' with 'about' ?

Example: A study was conducted as to whether monkeys were intelligent.

Should I rewrite as:

A study was conducted whether monkeys were intelligent
(or)
A study was conducted about whether monkeys were intelligent.

I am not clear on using 'as to' and when to use it in a sentence before 'whether'.

Please clarify as I am not a native speaker of English.

Thanks in advance.

Servlette

Casi · Accepted Answer

Try looking at it this way,

Active: Primatologists conducted a study on whether monkeys were intelligent (or not).
Passive: A study was conducted on whether monkeys were intelligent (or not).

MrPedantic · Answer

Hello Serv

Think of the 'as to whether' as meaning 'with reference to whether'. If you can insert 'with reference to whether' in the sentence, you can use 'as to whether'. If you can't, you must use simply 'whether'.

For example, with the sentence 'a study was conducted {???} monkeys were intelligent', you can say 'a study was conducted {with reference to whether} monkeys were intelligent'.

Thus you can use 'as to whether':

'A study was conducted {as to whether} monkeys were intelligent.'

But with the sentence 'I asked him {???} he had finished his study of monkey intelligence', you could not say 'I asked him {with reference to whether} he had finished his study of monkey intelligence'.

Thus you would use simply 'whether':

'I asked him {whether} he had finished his study of monkey intelligence.'

MrP

Clarification required on using 'as to'

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