日本語道場

Nihongo Dojo — N3 → N2

Grammar

N2

~か否か

~ka ina ka

whether or not

When to use it

Use ~か否か as the formal, written counterpart of ~かどうか when framing a yes-or-no question as an issue to be judged, decided, or verified. It is at home in reports, contracts, minutes, and formal email, and in stiff spoken registers like board meetings or press statements; in casual conversation it sounds affected. It typically marks the pivotal point of a decision, so it pairs with verbs like 判断する・検討する・決定する・見極める.

Formation

  • Verb: plain form (present or past) + か否か — 継続するか否か / 支払われたか否か
  • i-adjective: plain form + か否か — 妥当か否かではなく…(正しくは 正しいか否か)
  • na-adjective: stem + か否か, or more formally stem + であるか否か — 適切か否か / 適切であるか否か
  • Noun: noun + か否か, or noun + であるか否か — 違反か否か / 違反であるか否か
  • Often followed by は・を・について・に関わらず: ~か否かは今後の判断となる/~か否かに関わらず
  • Negative forms are possible (行くか行かないか otherwise); with 否か the negative is already implied, so ~ないか否か is avoided.

Examples

  • Whether or not we accept the proposal will be decided at next week's board meeting.

  • We will verify once more whether or not the cost-effectiveness is reasonable.

  • We're awaiting their reply on whether or not they'll renew the contract.

  • I'd like to leave it to Legal to judge whether or not this violates our regulations.

  • We will respond formally after determining whether or not it is feasible.