The relativity of ‘if’

Posted by Pak Guru on March 5th, 2018 | 0 comments | grammar, IELTS, kalau, relative clauses, speaking, vocabulary, writing

Old people believe if traditional medicines are more effective for long-standing health complaints than contemporary ones.

Here an Indonesian student has used if as a relative pronoun. This is allowed in Bahasa Indonesia, at least after the verb ‘believe’, but it is not allowed in English.

Instead you need:

• Old people believe that traditional medicines are more effective for long-standing health complaints than contemporary ones.

Cultural notes

• The word ‘relative’ made me think of Einstein, and that’s why he appears on this post’s featured image.
• Since there is a cultural note for ‘relative’ then I suppose we ought to include one for ‘if’. How about this inspirational poem by Rudyard Kipling?