Breakdown of Мы не знаем, поможет ли сокращение сотрудников.
не
not
мы
we
знать
to know
помочь
to help (perfective)
сотрудник
employee
ли
whether / if (in indirect questions)
сокращение
the reduction
Questions & Answers about Мы не знаем, поможет ли сокращение сотрудников.
Why is ли placed after поможет instead of at the beginning of the clause like 'whether' in English?
In Russian, the particle ли acts like 'whether' or 'if' for indirect questions, but it cannot start a clause. It always immediately follows the exact word being questioned. Since the speaker is wondering if the reduction will help, the verb поможет comes first, directly followed by ли.
Could we change the word order to сокращение сотрудников ли поможет?
Grammatically yes, but it changes the meaning by shifting the focus. Placing сокращение before ли means you are questioning what will help: 'We do not know whether it is the reduction of employees (or something else) that will help.' By putting поможет first, the doubt is firmly placed on the action of helping itself.
Is сокращение сотрудников the normal way to talk about layoffs in Russian?
Yes, while it literally means 'reduction of employees', it is the standard business and journalistic term for 'downsizing', 'layoffs', or 'staff cuts'. In a work context, you will often hear it shortened to just сокращение.
Why use the perfective verb поможет here instead of the imperfective помогает?
The speaker is focused on a future, completed result: whether this specific action of downsizing will successfully solve the current problem. The perfective поможет emphasizes achieving that final result, whereas the imperfective помогает would mean 'is currently helping' or 'regularly helps'.
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