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When we say "It depends..." and "It depends on...". What's the different between them?

PS: Explore free learning materials for English: Class: Difference between verbs See Watch Look — Homophones II — Adverbs of Manner — Collocations with do

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HKeyser profile picture HKeyserFebruary 2019
"It depends..." is generally not grammatically correct. Some English speakers might say a sentence such as, "It depends when I go to work.", but the correct form of the sentence would be "It depends on when I go to work." Another correct form of the sentence that would generally only be seen in formal settings is "It depends upon when I go to work."
  • HKeyser profile picture HKeyserFebruary 2019
    One last thing: It is okay to simply have a sentence which writes "It depends." In this case, the rest of the sentence is implied. For example,

    1: "What time are you getting home from work?"
    2: "It depends." (Implied: on how bad traffic is; on how much work I need to finish, etc.)

    Would be a perfectly acceptable conversation.
  • HKeyser profile picture HKeyserFebruary 2019
    Basically, "It depends..." is not technically grammatically correct, but people use it anyway and you won't be faulted if you use it yourself. If you want to be technically correct, though, you should use "It depends on..."
taenarat profile picture taenaratFebruary 2019
"It depends."
"It depends on ... "

The first statement is the only situation when you use "it depends" by itself. It is used more so in conversations.

But if you have additional conditions or reasons to explain, then you will add the word "on" or "upon", for example "it depends ON whether it rains"