if

Pluralifs

1. 1
   conjunction

   On the condition that, or supposing that, introducing something that may or may not be true, including imagined or unreal situations (if I were you; if it had rained).

   The plant will die if nobody waters it.

   Look both ways if you cross the road here.

   UsageFor a possible future condition, usually use the present after if: if it rains tomorrow.

   Similarprovided, providing, supposing

   Oppositeunless

   Note

   Its clause is unusually mobile. It can lead, follow, or sit in the middle of the main clause (I'll, if I have time, do it next week). It can also drop its subject and verb entirely, leaving only a participle: if crossing the road, look both ways. That clipped form suits instructions and notices.

2. 2
   offer (in case)conjunction

   In case; introducing a condition under which the main statement is relevant.

   There's some leftover pasta in the fridge if you get hungry before we're back.

   There are blankets in the cupboard if it gets cold.

   Note

   Linguists call this the biscuit conditional, after the textbook example there are biscuits on the sideboard if you want them. The biscuits are there whether or not you want any; the if clause only says when the remark becomes relevant. That separates it from the true condition, where the outcome depends on the clause. To test it, delete the if clause: if the main statement stays just as true, it is a relevance conditional. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • Linguists use the name biscuit conditional, derived from Austin's biscuit example. languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu
   • The biscuit example appears in a linguistics textbook with the stated wording. langsci-press.org
3. 3
   whetherconjunction

   Whether, introducing an indirect question as the object of a verb.

   Nobody asked if the plan made sense.

   He couldn't tell if the noise was thunder or guns.

   UsageCommon after ask, know, wonder; in formal writing, before or not, or where it could read as a condition, whether is safer.

   Similarwhether

   Note

   In speech, if is the ordinary choice after know, ask, wonder, and doubt, and it has a long history in print: Matthew Prior writes "She doubts if two and two make four" in the 1710s. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Matthew Prior wrote the quoted words in Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind, Canto III. en.wiktionary.org
   • The quotation appeared in print in the 1710s, in the volume with a 1718 title page. eighteenthcenturypoetry.org
4. 4
   conjunction

   Whenever; every time that.

   The alarm sounds if the door opens after midnight.

   The buses stop if it snows.

   UsageBoth parts usually take the present: if you heat ice, it melts.

   Similarwhen, whenever

   Note

   Grammarians call this the zero conditional. Both clauses take the present tense, and the sentence states a general truth rather than a single case: if you heat ice, it melts. A quick test is to swap in when or whenever; if the meaning survives, you have the habitual if. The overlap is old, because the Proto-Germanic ancestor *jabai meant both "when" and "if." Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

   • English if descends from Proto-Germanic *jabai, reconstructed with the meanings “when” and “if.” en.wiktionary.org
5. 5
   even supposingconjunction

   Even if, or even in the circumstances that, usually in exaggerated statements.

   He'll finish the race if he has to crawl.

   He wouldn't lift a finger to help us if the house were on fire.

   UsageOften used in vows and fixed phrases such as if it's the last thing I do.

   Note

   Here the condition is pushed to an extreme until it becomes a refusal or a vow, and an unspoken even carries the meaning. It grew from the imagined use of the conditional if (if you were the last man on earth) and settled into fixed phrases such as if it's the last thing I do. Dickens uses it in Oliver Twist for fierce devotion: "I'd walk round and round the place till I dropped, if the snow was on the ground." Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • Charles Dickens wrote Oliver Twist. gutenberg.org
   • The quoted words occur in Oliver Twist as an expression of devotion. Nancy speaks them to Bill Sikes; the excerpt ends before the original sentence does. gutenberg.org
6. 6
   conjunction

   Considering or given that, introducing a condition already known to hold.

   And if the drain is blocked, as we know it is, nothing will flow.

   If you knew the store was closed, why did you drive me all the way there?

   UsageIt can echo an earlier statement: 'I'm tired.' 'If you're tired, take a break.'

   Similarsince, as

   Note

   The use is old. Spenser writes "If old Aveugles sonnes so euill heare" in 1590. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Spenser wrote the quoted line in The Faerie Queene, Book I, canto V, stanza 23; Duessa speaks it. scholarsbank.uoregon.edu
   • The quoted line appears in the 1590 first edition, confirming the use's antiquity. talus.artsci.wustl.edu

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