Did reading that make your head spin? That’s because the words weather and whether sound alike but have different meanings and spellings. The frequently misspelled word whether is usually used to introduce an indirect question and in statements involving alternatives.
• Eg: The policeman asked whether I had seen the accident
• “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.” (Abraham Lincoln) The word weather, as a noun, means the atmosphere, in terms of temperature, wind, clouds and precipitation.
• Eg: The children could not go swimming as the weather wasn’t suitable As a verb, to weather means to survive or endure and ‘weathering’ is the result of exposure to wind and weather.
• Eg: The ship weathered the storm and headed back to land. (weather as a verb to mean survive)
• Eg: The first effect of weathering of rock surfaces is discoloration. (weather as a verb to mean erode) So now you know that whether is related to a question and begins with a wh- just as many other question words(what, why, where, who, etc) and the weather could be good, bad, hot, cold, wet or dry.
