just wanted to make sure (if)

[Topstudent]

I wrote this. It's part of a dialog.

A few weeks after she had started her new job there was a party at the company. At some point she's at the bar when this man comes up to her. He just wanted to make sure if she had settled in well. It turned out he was the founder and director of the company. They ended up talking for a while...

1) Is 'make sure' appropriate here if the man has no idea about how she has settled before coming up to her, he just knows that she's just started? Also, is 'if' OK?

2) It's not correct/natural to say 'He just wanted to hear if she had settled in well', is it?

 

[jutfrank]

1) Possibly, but 'if' is wrong. Use 'that' instead. Alternatively, use 'check' and 'if', or better, 'whether'.
2) No, it's not good.

Use 'if' (in the sense of 'whether') only when there's a binary possibility in mind and you want to reveal which of the two is the case.. She's either okay or she's not okay. That's something that you can check but not something that you can make sure or hear, so if doesn't make sense with those verbs.

a) Can you check that she's okay?
b) Can you check if she's okay?

These two requests do not carry the same meaning, logically. The first is like saying 'Can you confirm that her okay-ness is the case?' while the second is like saying 'Can you answer the question 'Is she okay?'' That's not quite the same.

You can sense this difference in this pair:

c) Can you make sure that she's okay?
d) Can you make sure if she's okay?

The verb make sure is similar to 'confirm'. It can't be used to mean 'answer the question'.

 

[Rover_KE]

You could also say 'He just wanted to ask her if she had settled in well'.

 

[emsr2d2]

A few weeks after she had started her new job there was a party at the company. At some point, she's at the bar when this man comes up to her. He just wanted to make sure if she had settled in well. It turned out he was the founder and director of the company. They ended up talking for a while...

I find the use of the present tense just in the part I've coloured blue above strange. When we choose to use the historical present (the use of the present tense to express past events), we tend to use it for the entire piece. You would need to write:

A few weeks after starting her new job, there's an office party. At one point, she's at the bar when this man comes up to her. He just wants to make sure she's settled in well. It turns out he's the founder and director of the company. They end up talking for a while.

If you don't want to use the historical present for the whole piece, the second sentence should be "At one point, she was at the bar when this man came up to her".