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Background info: I asked a staff member to help me to key my info into the computer so I would be able to sit a test.

A: Hey, have you applied for the test?

(1) Me : I asked a staff member to do it for me. I will ask him whether I have applied for the test.

(2) Me : I asked a staff member to do it for me. I will ask him whether I will have applied for the test.

Which one of the two is correct or fits the context?

I think (1) is sufficient because native speakers don't tend to repeat "will". Can someone shed light on this?

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    Is there a waiting time between keying in your data and knowing whether the application was successful? I ask because I would have thought that 'keying in my info' was 'applying for the test'.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 11:32
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    Version #2 is very awkward and unlikely. A native speaker would only use it in some rather unusual context where the matter being queried ("Has the test application been submitted?") hasn't yet been determined at time of utterance. Which is an entirely separate issue from whether the speaker can access that information at time of utterance. In the context of the example here, that implies that even ringing the staff member and asking him right now wouldn't resolve the question; perhaps the staff member himself hasn't yet established for certain that the application was made & approved.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 12:00
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    ...and even in some peculiar situation like that, the native speaker would only repeat the explicit future tense if for some reason it was important to convey that "not currently answerable in an absolute sense" aspect. Which is vanishingly unlikely, imho.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 12:02
  • Does this answer your question? When I will have
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 12:06
  • Every application for the test happened or didn't happen in the past. No need for will have applied. You will ask about the past.
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 12:52

1 Answer 1

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Yes, 1. is better than 2.

The reason isn't to avoid repeating "will," the first "will" is unrelated to the second. "I will ask him whether I will have applied for the test." This means you commit to asking him if you yourself will complete applying for the test. This is not what you want to ask. You want to ask if you've already applied.

Correct:

I will ask him whether I have applied for the test.

Or, if speaking out loud:

I will ask him whether I've applied for the test.

More common (spoken):

I'll ask him if I've applied for the test.

Using "whether" is completely correct, but people use it less frequently than "if" in scenarios like this, for some reason.

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