[Grammar] Stephen is not sure ___ his mother will buy him a present from India.

[sitifan]

Stephen is not sure ___ his mother will buy him a present from India.
(A) whether
(B) where　
(C) that　
(D) what

The answer to the above question is option A. Is option C also acceptable to native speakers?

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, it's acceptable in the sense that it produces a well-formed sentence. In fact, (C) was my answer before I read the options. However, the two sentences (with A and C) do not have quite the same meaning.

Where did you find this question? Do you know who wrote it and why?

 

[sitifan]

Where did you find this question? Do you know who wrote it and why?

It was designed and intended to be used in the mid-term exam by my colleague.

 

[jutfrank]

It was designed and intended to be used in the mid-term exam by my colleague.

And you and your colleague are looking to test whether it works? Is that why you're asking here? What's the specific language point you're trying to test?

 

[sitifan]

And you and your colleague are looking to test whether it works? Is that why you're asking here? What's the specific language point you're trying to test?

Yes. Yes. My colleague mistakenly thought that "not sure" could not be followed by the conjunction "that."

 

[jutfrank]

Yes. Yes.

If you let us know this sort of information in post #1 in future, it will greatly help us give more useful answers. We like to know what posters' aims are. Thanks.

 

[Tarheel]

Stephen is not sure ___ his mother will buy him a present from India.
(A) whether
(B) where　
(C) that　
(D) what

I guess you know that it's a perfectly good sentence with nothing in the blank. (I would use a verb other than buy.)

 

[tzfujimino]

1. Stephen is not sure (that) his mother will buy him a present from India.
2. Stephen is not sure whether his mother will buy him a present from India.

May I ask the difference in meaning between the two sentences above?

 

[jutfrank]

May I ask the difference in meaning between the two sentences above?

Using if/whether shows there are two possibilities at the fore of the speaker's mind, who's thinking either she will or she won't. There's an internal question that asks 'Will she or won't she?' There is uncertainty about which of the two possible courses of action the mother will take.

Using a that-clause states that Stephen is doubtful as to the truth of the proposition expressed by the sentence his mother will buy him a present from India. The meaning could be more about doubt than uncertainty, and there carries no predominant mental question of the outcome of one possibility over another.

I understand that in this context, there's little if any effective difference to be had between the two example sentences since the difference in meaning is a difference in thought only. In other utterances the difference between if/whether-clauses and that-clauses when following predicates of uncertainty may be a bit easier to see:

I don't know if I should go tonight. What do you think?
Are you sure that you locked the door?
I doubt that you'll want to see him right now.
They weren't certain whether you wanted the chicken or the fish.