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Is this a grammatically correct/formal way to ask the question of this type? Here is an example

Hey, did you check if the payment went through?

What's the better way to rephrase it?

apaderno
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Anderson Silva
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3 Answers3

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I think yours works. This might sound nicer:

Hey, did you check whether the payment went through?

Claudiu
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  • +1: Thanks, I considered using "whether" instead "if." In fact, it is a good follow-up question to identify the different between if and whether – Anderson Silva Oct 13 '10 at 18:26
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    Some will say that "whether" is the more or only correct choice in this sentence. But in practice you wouldn't use "hey" and "whether" in the same sentence. – Peter Eisentraut Oct 14 '10 at 04:51
  • "Have you checked" is very much more natural to my (British) ears than "Did you check". But I don't think that's true in North American. – Colin Fine Oct 14 '10 at 11:44
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    @Peter: Sup G, yo lissn up, y'all know whether dat payment went thru? =P. – Claudiu Oct 14 '10 at 14:07
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Consider: Did you check "whether" the payment went through? "If" not, you should check as soon as possible. This demonstrates the use of "if" and "whether" in the context.

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Please, make sure your payment went through before [whatever].

Gurzo
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    That's a decent alternative. however, you changing the meaning, shifting it from the question to a direct statement form – Anderson Silva Oct 13 '10 at 18:08
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    True and I'm sorry. I didn't notice you specifically asked for a question. Maybe "Did you make sure you payment went through?" is a viable solution? – Gurzo Oct 13 '10 at 21:54
  • I would remove the comma after "Please" ("Please make sure..."). Other languages seem to like the comma in that place, and I've seen it from a lot of non-native speakers, but in my experience native speakers will only add the comma if there's a strong need to separate the two parts of the sentence ("Please, don't do that again"). – psmears Feb 09 '11 at 11:04