Present tense and preterite in the same line

Mr. X said:

Hello,

I have a sentence which is essentially in present tense but it involves preterite as well. There are three ways in which I could frame it.

He believes that his dad will give him a present if he did something nice.

He believes that his dad will give him a present if he does something nice.

He believes that his dad would give him a present if he did something nice.

My guts tells me the first is correct because 'believes' is present tense and should therefore be followed by 'will'. But my confusion is: both does and did seem to be fine here.

Any comments?

Mr. X

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bhaisahab said:

The second and third examples are correct, the first is incorrect. Can you see why?

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Mr. X said:

Sorry, I can't. I thought the third was incorrect and I've mentioned why in the OP. Regarding the first, is it because 'did' represents an action already completed and wouldn't therefore be compatible with 'will', which refers to the future? I'd like to hear your thoughts.

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Mr. X said:

Hello,

I have a sentence which is essentially in present tense but it involves preterite as well. There are three ways in which I could frame it.

He believes that his dad will give him a present if he did something nice.

He believes that his dad will give him a present if he does something nice.

He believes that his dad would give him a present if he did something nice.

My guts tells me the first is correct because 'believes' is present tense and should therefore be followed by 'will'. But my confusion is: both does and did seem to be fine here.

Any comments?

Mr. X

Click to expand...

kfredson said:

You raise some wonderful examples here. I think it would be easier to consider the sentences -- to begin with -- without the opening phrase.

Hence, you have
His dad will give him a present if he did something nice.
The (apparently) past tense of the second verb doesn't agree with the future tense of the first.
His dad will give him a present if he does something nice.
The future tense agrees nicely with "if he does." Can you see why?
His dad would give him a present if he did something nice.
Here the word would sets up a conditional situation, which does agree with the conditional if he did. Hence, to my mind this works, as well. Now, I believe this is the same as saying if he were to do, which I actually prefer.

Now let's go back and put on the introductory phrase.
In the second sentence it clearly needs to be "He believes that..."
In the third sentence I would agree with Mr. Bhaisahab that it could be "He believed that..." But I would also venture to say that it is not incorrect to express it as you have done:
He believes that his dad would give him a present if he did something nice.

His process of thinking could, to my mind, be taking place either in the present or the past.

What say you, Mr. Bhaisahab? I would be interested to see your thoughts on this. Or perhaps others have ideas on this.

And thank you, Mr. X, for presenting these challenging sentences!

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Mr. X said:

Hello,

I have a sentence which is essentially in present tense but it involves preterite as well. There are three ways in which I could frame it.

He believes that his dad will give him a present if he did something nice.

He believes that his dad will give him a present if he does something nice.

He believes that his dad would give him a present if he did something nice.

My guts tells me the first is correct because 'believes' is present tense and should therefore be followed by 'will'. But my confusion is: both does and did seem to be fine here.

Any comments?

Mr. X

Click to expand...

Raymott said:

You're not using the preterite tense here. You're using the subjunctive "did" which has the same form as the preterite.
If you wrote "My father believes I did something wrong", "did" would be in the preterite (simple past) tense.

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Mr. X said:

Thanks, Raymott.

My confusion is this: I know 'his dad would give him a present if he were to do something nice' is right as a stand-alone sentence. But since it is preceded by 'he believes' instead of 'he believed,' will that be a problem?

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Raymott said:

I'm not sure which sentence you're referring to. Your sentence doesn't contain "he believes".
Maybe you're referring to my last sentence: "My father believes I did something wrong." But I don't see the relevance to your current question.

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Mr. X said:

No, I am talking about my three example sentences. Of the three, the second is okay, the first is wrong, but the third confused me because it was 'believed' instead of 'believes.'

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