Expressing Uncertainty by Using “whether…or Not”

Have you ever wanted to express something like “I want to go to the park tomorrow, but I don’t know if it will rain tomorrow.”, and thinking that if you can use “如果“ to translate this sentence. When expressing “whether/if…or not”, we don’t use 如果, instead, we use affirmative negative structures we learned in Q1. 

Wǒ Bùzhīdào Sub. Affirmative Negative

Wǒ bùzhīdào sub.  + verb + bù/méi+ verb + (object)

Wǒ bù zhīdào míngtiān huì bù huì xià yǔ. 我不知道明天会不会下雨。 I don't know if it will rain tomorrow (or not).

Tā bù zhīdào tā de jīnglǐ xǐ bù xǐhuān chī là de shíwù. 他不知道他的经理喜不喜欢吃辣的食物。 He didn't know if his manager liked spicy food (or not).

Wǒ bù zhīdào zuótiān tā yǒu méiyǒu qù pānyán. 我不知道昨天他有没有去攀岩。 I don't know if he went rock climbing yesterday (or not).

Wǒ bùzhīdào sub.  + adj + bù + adj

Wǒ bù zhīdào zhège cài xián bù xián. 我不知道这个菜咸不咸。 I don't know if this dish is salty (or not).

Wǒ bù zhīdào wǒ de xīn tóngshì yǒu bù yǒuhǎo. 我不知道我的新同事友不友好。 I don't know if my new colleagues are friendly (or not).

Wǒ bù zhīdào wǒ kǎoshì kǎo dé hǎobù hǎo. 我不知道我考试考得好不好。 I don't know if I did well in the exam (or not).

Actually, 不知道bùzhīdào can be replaced by other verbs, like 不清楚bùqīngchǔ，不确定bùquèdìng，忘wàng了 and so on. Let's look at some examples.

Subj. +  verb + sub.  + verb + bù/méi + verb

Wǒ wàngle wǒ de tóngshì zuótiān yǒu méiyǒu qù kāihuì. 我忘了我的同事昨天有没有去开会。 I forgot if my colleague went to the meeting yesterday (or not).

Wǒ bù qīngchǔ tā xià zhōu huì bù huì gēn lǎobǎn yīqǐ chūchāi. 我不清楚她下周会不会跟老板一起出差。 I don't know if she will be on a business trip with her boss next week (or not).