do not know if certain

[navi tasan]

1-They were supposed to contact our employees. We do not know if certain employees have been contacted.
2-They were supposed to contact our employees. We do not know if certain employees have been contacted or not.


Can't these sentences have two meanings:
a-We do not know if any employees have been contacted.
b-As regards certain specific employees, we do not know if they have been contacted.

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[MikeNewYork]

They both appear to refer to "certain" employees.

 

[navi tasan]

Thank you very much Mike.

Would the meaning change if one replaced 'certain' with 'some'?

1a-They were supposed to contact our employees. We do not know if some employees have been contacted.
2a-They were supposed to contact our employees. We do not know if some employees have been contacted or not.

Can't these have two meanings:

a-We do not know if any employees have been contacted.
b-As regards certain specific employees, we do not know if they have been contacted.

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[Raymott]

If you want to be unambiguous, you should say, "We do not know if all employees have been contacted." or "There are some employees who we are not sure have been contacted." or "We do not know if any employees have contacted."
Changing'certain' to 'some' doesn't help.