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Grammar detail: かどうか
かどうか - whether or not
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Grammar games:
GRAMMAR MATCH
SENTENCE BUILDER
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plain form clause A
+ かどうか
+ clause B
means (clause B) whether or not (clause A)
かどうか functions in a very similar way to the English phrase 'whether or not', with the key difference that in English, clause A / B would be reversed.
Clause A is usually a description of a situation - 'rain tomorrow', or 'the bathroom is in use'. Clause B can be a statement of knowledge or intent ('I don't know' or 'I would like') etc.
A simple way to construct sentences using かどうか is to start with a question (converting the final verb into the plain form if there is one and it's in the polite form), add どうか after the question marker か, and then add clause B. For example, let's start with the following simple question:
This sentence uses the polite form, so first we turn the polite form verb ことができます into the plain form, ことができる. Then we add どうか to the question marker か so that we have our key phrase かどうか, and the meaning '... whether or not Lucy can speak Japanese'. Now we can add 'clause B', which can be anything we wish to convey - in this case
し
知
っていますか ('do you know ~'):Kanji used in this grammar
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