Whether Conjunction

[Marcos - Brazil]

Hello! I am a student and I have a doubt regarding to the following sentence with the conjunction “whether”.

- Considering all that had happened during the previous year, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The infinitive after the conjunction whether sounds strange to me. I am not emphasizing here the conjunction “whether”, because I already checked that we need to use “whether” before to-infinitive instead of “if”. But why should we use infinitive here? I probably would write it as follows:

- Considering all that had happened during the previous year, she didn't know whether laughed or cried.

So, why the first sentence is correct? Is the second one correct too?

Thanks!

Marcos
Brazil

[kristinita]

No, this sentence is quite right with whether and the infinitive. This conjunction expresses a doubt or choice between alternatives.

[inezrufus]

In spoken English the sentence you've given is fine. It is understood that there will be an unspoken 'or not' after the word 'whether'. e.g whether or not to cry