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Viceidol Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

Is this correct? "Whether or not he stays, the result will be the same."

[<:o)]Hello, everyone

I saw a sentence in my grammar book which I don't know if it's correct. It goes like this:

Whether or not he stays, the result will be the same.

Shouldn't "Whether" and "or not" be seperated in this case? The reason I say this is because I've never seen this usage before. What I've seen is like this:

Whether he stays or not, the result will be the same.

Can someone tell me if the first sentence is correct or not? I'd appreciate it. Emotion: smile
  

Top answer

Hi Viceidol This is very much a matter of opinion. I don't think people agree on this usage. Whether or not he stays is certainly less common than whether he stays or not .

— Cool Breeze

  • Hi Viceidol This is very much a matter of opinion.
  • I don't think people agree on this usage.
  • Whether or not he stays is certainly less common than whether he stays or not .
  • Both are OK by me, but I don't think I'd use the first one myself.
  • CB
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3 Answers
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Hi Viceidol

This is very much a matter of opinion. I don't think people agree on this usage. Whether or not he stays is certainly less common than whether he stays or not. Both are OK by me, but I don't think I'd use the first one myself.

CB
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I don't have any usage statistics, but "Whether or not he stays" does not sound unusual to me at all.
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Recently, I heard an anchor saying the phrase "Whether on not..." on a popular TV show.
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