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LingakuLingakuNote: Past tense (〜た/〜だった) also precedes かどうか.
The structure かどうか is used to express "whether or not" something is the case. It embeds a yes/no question into a larger sentence as a subordinate clause, allowing you to talk about uncertainty or to ask/check about a binary outcome.
The clause before かどうか uses the plain form:
Past tense can also be used before かどうか:
かどうか is typically followed by verbs that involve checking, knowing, deciding, or asking, such as わかる分かる, しる知る, かくにん確認する, きく聞く, しらべる調べる, きめる決める.
When embedding a yes/no question (no question word), use かどうか to explicitly express "whether or not." Using か alone is also possible but sounds more formal or literary. かどうか is the natural choice in everyday speech.
However, when embedding a question-word question (who, what, where, etc.), use か alone – not かどうか:
かどうか emphasizes that there are two possibilities – yes or no, true or false. It is useful when you want to highlight the uncertainty or the binary nature of the situation.