"did you think" tenses

Question

Hello. I've found a sentence approximately like this in a book:
"Did you think it was difficult to study English pronunciation when you first started to learn English."

For me using the past tense two times in a row seems very unnatural. Like I think, that we need to determine what tense to use in the second part of the question depending on the time relation to THAT time, which is already past. Not in relation to the current time.

So I would say

Did you think it IS difficult to study English pronunciation when you first started to learn English.

The timeline is like ---(start_of_learning + difficult)-----(now)

And there are cases when we would use past or future tenses in the second part, but only when the timeline is different, like:

- Did you think it was difficult to pass the exam when you just finished it?
- Yeah. But now I think that it was a piece of cake.

The timeline is ---(exam)-(passed exam)---(now)

A wife asks her husband:
"Did you then you WILL marry me when you first met me?"

The timeline is ---(first meeting)--(wedding)--(now).

Am I right?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

ExothDid you think it IS difficult to study English pronunciation when you first started to learn English.

This is not correct. The question is not how you feel about English pronunciation now (if it is difficult or not) but how you felt about it at the time (if it was difficult or not). Don't try to look for a hard-and-fast rule. Try to look for what the context requires.

Using the past tense two times in a row seems unnatural? For whatever reason? Please try to give me some examples you don't understand. There are an unlimited number of examples of this in English:
"He thought it was the end of the world."
"She acted upon what she knew at the time."

Exoth- Did you think it was difficult to pass the exam when you just finished it?- Yeah. But now I think that it was a piece of cake.

Totally correct.

Exoth"Did you then you WILL marry me when you first met me?"

I assume you meant to write "Did you think you WILL marry me when you first met me?"

Getting married to someone you've just met is pretty farfetched, and it's definitely theoretical at best. You need to use subjunctive: "Did you think you would marry me, when you first met me?"

If you really have your heart set on using the future tense, then you need to quote the thought as though it were literal speech: "Did you think when you met me: 'I will marry her.' ?" This is also allowed, but it's uncommon.

Fivejedjon · Answer

Welcome to the forum, Exoth.

Exoth"Did you think it was difficult to study English pronunciation when you first started to learn English."

That is correct and natural. So is, "Did you think it would be difficult ...?"

ExothDid you think it IS difficult to study English pronunciation when you first started to learn English?

That is not impossible, but it is, in my opinion, unlikely.

ExothA wife asks her husband:"Did you ~~then~~ think you WILL marry me when you first met me?"

That does not work at all. The marrying, though future at the time of the now wife's question, is now past. Only 'would' works.

Exoth · Answer

Thanks for the answers. Now I see the logic. It seems unnatural to me just because it's different in my native language. But still can't get, how to describe, that a person thought about something already happened before the moment of thinking.
"Did you think that you were a fool to accept the invitation to this university when you got to know that you are welcome in the University of Oxford?"
So how can I point that he accepted the invitation before he knows about the Oxford?

Anonymous · Answer

"Did you think you were a fool to attend this university, when you later learned that you were accepted to the University of Oxford?"

Let's just assume that everything happened in this order:
1. Accepted to this unversity
2. Accepted at Oxford
3. Enrolled at this university
4. Learned that you could have gone to Oxford

Everything happened in the past, so you still need to use the past tense to refer to every event. However, you might denote different moments in the past by using time-relative terms like "later," "previously," etc.

Exoth · Answer

I see. Thanks.

CalifJim · Answer

ExothFor me using the past tense two times in a row seems very unnatural.

You'll have to fight against that feeling. It's natural in English.

You need to focus on a topic called "sequence of tenses".

Most sentences contain only verb tenses that have a present point of view (POV) OR only verb tenses that have a past point of view. You should certainly master these before trying sentences with a combination of different points of view.

Here's a fairly complete list. Some of the modal verbs are seen in both points of view.

Present POV tenses:
present, present perfect; will, can, should, may, might, must; will have, may have, might have, must have; less often would, could.

Past POV tenses:
past, past perfect, would, could, might, should; would have, could have, should have, might have.
_________

Thus, with only Past POV tenses, the correct version of your sentence is

Did you think you would marry me when you first met me?

In other words, would is used to mean 'will' in a Past POV sentence. In other words, would is used as the future of the past.

ExothBut now I think that it was a piece of cake.

This is a case of a sentence that changes POV. It is correct. Very often, when the main clause (I think, I believe, I know, ...) is in the Present POV, the subordinate clause can be either in the Present POV or in the Past POV. But, as I say, it's better to master the idea of staying within the same POV first. The reverse case — main clause in the Past POV and the following clause in the Present POV — is quite rare and may sound strange to native speakers.

CJ

"did you think" tenses

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