"regardless of" vs "regardless if" vs "regardless of if"

Question

I am aware of the following correct structure with the of:

I will carry on regardless of your opinion

Sometimes such sentence is structured as a condition and I then add an if:

I will carry on regardless of if you don't want me to

I am not sure about this, though, as it feels a bit convoluted and odd to say out loud. It might be incorrect? What about this then:

I will carry on regardless if you don't want me to

But this suddenly sounds like the opposite of my intention: it sounds like I will carry on regardless, but only if you don't want me to. As if the condition suddenly overrules the "regardless", whereas the original intention was that the "regardless" overrules the condition.

How can I write the sentence in a proper way?

Answer 1

• regardless of your opinion [of + noun]

• regardless of whether you want me to or not [followed by whether]

Personally, I would not use "regardless of if you don't want me to". As the clause "if you don't want me to" cannot come after "regardless of"

For me, that is not grammatical.

Answer 2

"if" can be used in two meanings. One meaning is to discuss the consequences of a predicate being true (e.g. "If you want a piece of cake, go ahead and take one.") The other meaning to discuss the state of a predicate (e.g. "I didn't know if you'd want a piece of cake".) In the second case, when you say "if X", you are saying "the state of whether X is true or false", so there's no need to include a "not"; "I didn't know if you'd not want a piece of cake" is just a more convoluted way of saying "I didn't know if you'd want a piece of cake". So if you do include "not", it makes it sound like you are using "if" in the first meaning. The ambiguity of "if" can be reduced further by using "whether", which has just the second meaning. So your sentence would work a lot better if you said "I will carry on regardless of whether you want me to". You could also say "I will carry on regardless of you not wanting me to".

Answer 3

"I will do it regardless whether you want me to," or, "I will do it regardless that you don't want me to," might be decent substitutes for, "I will do it regardless if you don't want me to."

Answer 4

Part of the reason for this sharp change in meaning is that "carry on regardless" is a set phrase. It doesn't include anything about what you might be regardless of, but if it is followed by of that will take precedence. Without that, it's an intransitive phrasal verb with its own meaning, albeit one clearly based on the meaning of the separate words.

So, in "carry on regardless of your opinion", the meaning is like (carry on)(regardless (of your opinion)). Likewise, the second example is (carry on)(regardless (of (if you don't want me to))) - and is somewhat non-natural, possibly even non-standard. More formal and regular would be "carry on regardless of whether you want me to". You could also have "carry on regardless of your not wanting me to" or "carry on regardless of you not wanting me to", depending on dialect.

Your last example, however, is (carry on regardless)(if you don't want me to).

Regardless usually needs an of, for what you have no regard for, but it can get away without it in carry on regardless. Without that, you end up with something that will not be seen as correct:

I will do it regardless of your opinion.

That's fine. Makes perfect sense.

I will do it regardless of if you don't want me to.

That's just as right (and wrong) as your second example.

I will do it regardless if you don't want me to.

This will mostly be see as wrong, but regardless might be taken as an adverb describing the manner in which you will "do it", doing it in a careless way. This is probably a certain degree of meaning being carried back to the word from carry on regardless.