Quick English: Weather or Whether

When you're learning English, do you often get confused when you come across two words that sound the same but mean different things? Here's one that a lot of people, even native speakers, get mixed up: the difference between the words weather and whether.

It's easy to confuse the two, because they are homophones. Homophones are two words that sound the same ("homo" = same, "phono" = sound), even though they mean different things and are spelled differently.

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Weather

When we talk about the weather, we're talking about if it is raining, or hot or cold. Some things you would say about the weather are:

               > The weather has been really bad this week. It's been raining every day.

               > The football game was cancelled because of bad weather

Whether

The word whether is used to show a choice between multiple things. There are many different ways to use this word:

               > Ask Tim whether he would like to go to the movies. (In this case "or not" is implied, not stated directly)

               > Do you know whether Tim has gone home or if he is still in class?

               > We will play our football match whether it rains or shines

If you get confused, just remember that "rain" is a type of weather, and both have an "a" in them!

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