英和和英

語源

From 中期英語 if, yif, yef, from 古期英語 ġif (“if”), from Proto-West Germanic *jabu, *jabē, from Proto-Germanic *jabai (“when, if”). Cognate with Scots gif (“if, whether”), Saterland Frisian af, of (“if, whether”), West Frisian oft (“whether”), Dutch of (“or, whether, but”), Middle Low German ef, if, af, of ("if; whether"; > German Low German of), German ob (“if, whether”), Icelandic ef (“if”).

発音

• enPR: ĭf, IPA: /ɪf/, /ɪv/ (Can we verify this pronunciation?)
• 韻: -ɪf

接続詞

if

1. Supposing that, assuming that, in the circumstances that; used to introduce a condition that may be (or prove to be) either true or false.

   If crossing the road, make sure you look both ways.

   If I give you the money would/will you buy it for me?

   If you prefer, I can come tomorrow instead.

   I'll, if I have time, do it next week.

   I'll come only if you will do the driving.

   Fetch me a cold beer if there's one in the fridge.

   1. (computing) A keyword that invokes conditional processing: in the event that a given condition is true, execute the given statement(s) (otherwise execute other statements).

      if A then B else C

2. Supposing that; used with past or past perfect subjunctive to indicate a counterfactual or hypothetical condition.

   If she hadn't told me, I wouldn't know.

   "You would be healthier if you would give up smoking" "Well, if I were rich, I'd go to one of those hypnosis therapies to quit".

   She could have used my car if the battery wasn't flat.

   (it still is)

   1. (usually hyperbolic) Even if; even in the circumstances that.

      I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on earth.

      You're finishing your chowder if you sit there all afernoon!

      • 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:

        “Wait a minute!” said the girl: “I wouldn’t hurry by, if it was you that was coming out to be hung, the next time eight o’clock struck, Bill. I’d walk round and round the place till I dropped, if the snow was on the ground, and I hadn’t a shawl to cover me.”

      • 2004, David Lee Murphy and Kim Tribble (writers), Montgomery Gentry (singers), “If It’s The Last Thing I Do” (song), in You Do Your Thing (album):

        If it’s the last thing I do / If it takes me from Tubilo to Timbuktu / If it’s the last thing I do / I’m gonna dodge every road block, speed trap, county cop / To get my hands on you / If it’s the last thing I do.

3. Considering the fact that; given that; introducing a condition that is known to be true.

   The drain's blocked — and if the drain's blocked, the water won't flow.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part I (books I–III), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza ii, page 66:

     O what of Gods then boots it to be borne, / If old Aveugles ſonnes ſo euill heare?

4. When; whenever; every time that.

   If you heat water to 100° C, it boils.

   If it rains, it pours.

5. Although; used to introduce a concession; may..but.

   He was a great friend, if a little stingy at the bar.

   She won her team's admiration, if not the award, for her performance.

   • 1981 April 11, Mitzel, “Kopacz Acquitted In Barbre Killing”, in Gay Community News, page 1:

     Both Spear & Davis were indicted in the witchhunt surrounding the sensational (if nonexistent) "Revere sex ring."

6. (sometimes proscribed) Whether; used to introduce a noun clause, an indirect question, that functions as the direct object of certain verbs.

   I don't know if I want to go or not.

   • 1715–1717, Matthew Prior, Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind, Canto III:

     Quoth Matthew, “ […] / She doubts if two and two make four, / […] ”

   • 1976, Michael Harrison, Beyond Baker Street: A Sherlockian Anthology, page 117:

     It is doubtful if the Victorian Londoner needed any warning, for the artful mobsmen, toolers, whizzers and dippers, together with their stickman accomplices, were everywhere in the crowds, in the underground, on railway trains […]

7. Introducing a relevance conditional; in case.

   I have leftover cake if you want some.

   If you want to go home, I have the car keys.

8. (somewhat rare) While; used to introduce a contrast.
   • 1957 March 7, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 3.3, in Pnin, Heinemann, page 66:

     If his Russian was music, his English was murder.

   • 2015, Phillips Payson O'Brien, How the War was Won: Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II, page 8:

     If the outcome of the land war on the Eastern Front is usually seen as decisive, historical views on the importance of the air war are mixed.

   • 2015, Phillips Payson O'Brien, How the War was Won: Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II, page 65:

     If the Russians out-produced the Japanese in individual units, the Japanese out-produced the USSR in terms of technological quality.

   • 2015, Phillips Payson O'Brien, How the War was Won: Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II, page 103:

     If the Americans knew how they wanted to use strategic air power but not what to attack, the British had a huge number of plans about what to attack but almost no means to adequately deliver the necessary blow.

   • 2023, Serhii Plokhy, The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History, page 17:

     If the Poles resisted imperial rule, the Ukrainians threatened the unity of the “reunified” Catherinian empire by claiming an identity distinct from the Russian.

   • 2023, Serhii Plokhy, The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History, page 1970:

     If the collapse of the USSR was sudden and largely bloodless, growing strains between its two largest successors would develop into limited fighting in the Donbas in 2014 and then into all-out warfare in 2022, causing death, destruction, and a refugee crisis on a scale not seen in Europe since the Second World War.

   • 2023, Serhii Plokhy, The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History, page 1971:

     If the Balkan Wars of 1912–13 and World War I spelled the end of the Porte as an imperial power, its former Balkan possessions were the scene of the Yugoslav wars of 1991–2001, which coincided with the disintegration of the USSR.

使用する際の注意点

• Specifically a subordinating conjunction.
• Some usage critics recommend that if not be used to mean whether, since the distinction can remove ambiguity, as in the following example:

Tell me if you can see her. (If the addressee can see her, then they must let the speaker know)

Tell me whether you can see her. (The speaker wants to know which instance is true: either the addressee's ability or inability to see her)

• This distinction is further encouraged because, traditionally, if cannot always be used in place of whether. For instance, if the noun clause acts as the subject of the sentence or an object of a preposition, the word is usually whether. Examples:

We like to talk about whether classical music is better than jazz.

Whether you like today’s weather does not matter.

• Another difference between if and whether is with the use of or not.

The sentences I don't know whether or not I passed or I don't know whether I passed or not are both correct

The sentence I don't know if I passed or not is correct, but I don't know if or not I passed is incorrect

別の表記

• eef (representing various accents)
• ifen, iffen, if'n (dialectal)

派生語

名詞

if (plural ifs)

1. (informal) An uncertainty, possibility, condition, doubt etc.

   The board can't approve this project; there are too many ifs.

   • 1709, Susannah Centlivre, The Busy Body, Act III, in John Bell (ed.), British Theater, J. Bell (1791), page 59,

     Sir Fran. Nay, but Chargy, if——— ¶ Miran. Nay, Gardy, no Ifs.——Have I refus'd three northern lords, two British peers, and half a score knights, to have put in your Ifs?

   • 1791 January, “Richardſon’s Chemical Principles of the Metallic Arts”, in The Monthly Review, R. Griffiths, page 176:

     Well might Bergman add, (in his Sciographia,), “if the compariſon that has been made, &c. be juſt.” The preſent writer makes no ifs about the matter, and has ſuperadded a little inaccuracy of his own, […]

   • 2013 April 9, Andrei Lankov, “Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff.”, in New York Times‎:

     Even if they managed to strike Japan, the United States or South Korea with nuclear weapons — a big if, given that they do not have a reliable delivery system — they could not save themselves from ultimate defeat.

派生語

• big if
• ifs and ans
• ifs and buts
• no ifs, ands, or buts
• small if

参考

• and
• else
• false
• or
• then
• true
• whether

Further reading

• “if”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

アナグラム

• FI, Fi, fi

語源

From 古期英語 ġif, from Proto-West Germanic *jabē, *jabu, from Proto-Germanic *jabai.

発音

• IPA: /if/, /jif/

接続詞

if

1. if, on condition that

派生した語

• English: if, yif
• Scots: gif, gyf, gin
• Yola: yith, if

参照

• “if, conj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.