Teacher Discussion Forums

I was asked yesterday about "whether", what if any the rules were. I pleaded ignorance and rushed to the books. Clearly my own use of if/whether is instinctive but I was interested to find a list of "rules" in Swan.

Apparently you can't use "if" after a preposition. Do you have any opinions about if this is true?

The other thing, which I suppose I knew, is that "whether" can be fronted to be the subject but "if" can't.

It occurred to me that "whether" is more noun-like than "if" given both the above .

By the way, my missus says that I shouldn't ask for a "bit more wine" because it's "drop" for liquids. She tells me this a lot, as you can imagine, but does that make it true?

Your better half is quite wrong, though it may not be prudent to tell her so.

You can say "a drop more wine", though to me it appears a little fey, but "a bit more wine" is fine, as is "a little bit more wine".

And that last phrase tells us the answer because you wouldn't say " a little drop more wine". "Bit" is a generic term meaning a small quantity, and can be used with solids, liquids gases and abstracts.

Whether and 'if' is a right can of worms. I don't think there is any disagreement about whether you can use if after a prepositon (you can't).

So you don't like

"It depends on if it rains or not"

or

"We are having a discussion about if "whether" is preferable"

which seems a bit strict on your part, to my mind. Old Swan, who is usually sound, is as forthright as you. What's the basis of this prohibition?


I agree with you on the question of if "bit" can be used for liquids. Maybe only people from South Yorkshire are so picky with regard to if one is wrong and not the other. She does after all say "Dost tha want tha snap?" amongst other things. Maybe it's one of the other things.