sɛ ... anaa (Whether)

1. From question to whether

• Ɔwɔ fie anaa? (Is he at home?) becomes Bisa no sɛ ɔwɔ fie anaa. (Ask him whether he is at home.)
• Ɔbɛba anaa? (Will he come?) becomes Mennim sɛ ɔbɛba anaa. (I do not know whether he will come.)

2. Verbs that take it
Common ones are nim (know), bisa (ask) and hwɛ (see, check): Kɔhwɛ sɛ nsuo no ahuru anaa (Go and see whether the water has boiled). In the Asante Twi Bible, Noah sends out a dove sɛ ɔnkɔhwɛ sɛ nsuo no awe wɔ asase ani anaa (to see whether the water had dried from the land, Genesis 8:8).

3. Or not
Add a negative after anaa. Matching the tense is the careful choice: Mennim sɛ ɔbɛba anaa ɔremma (I do not know whether he will come or not), with re- + N- from Will Not: re- + N-. In everyday speech you will also hear the plain negative: ɔbɛba anaa ɔmma.

4. The tense stays
As with That: sɛ, the clause keeps the tense of the original question: Ɔbisaa me sɛ mewɔ sika anaa (She asked me whether I had money), literally whether I have money.

5. Whether first
When the whether-clause opens the sentence, Twi can use the frame from If: sɛ ... a instead: Sɛ ɔyɛ ɔdebɔneyɛni a, mennim (Whether he is a sinner, I do not know, John 9:25).

6. Whether or not, no matter
To say that something makes no difference, as in whether you go or not, use Whether ... Or: sɛ ... o, sɛ ... o.