Weather and Whether

Whether, Weather, and Wether

The words whether, weather, and wether sound identical, but their meanings are very different.

Whether

The conjunction whether is similar to if. It is most often used to introduce an indirect question. (Provided the spelling is correct, whether is generally used correctly by native English speakers. The rules for using whether are covered in more detail in the lesson Whether and If.)

Examples:

• Sarah wants to know whether the visit is still on schedule.
• I am going to the fair, whether it's raining or not.

Weather

As a noun, the word weather means the atmosphere in terms of temperature, wind, clouds, and precipitation. As a verb, to weather can mean to withstand or to endure(e.g., to weather an onslaught) or to erode (over time) (e.g., to weather the surface rock).

Examples:

• I am not going fishing today. Have you seen the weather?
(weather as a noun)
• We'll anchor up, weather the storm and then head back to land.
(weather as a verb meaning to endure)
• The sea will weather that rope in less than a week.
(weather as a verb meaning to erode)

Wether

The noun wether denotes a castrated ram (a male sheep).