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Seagull Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

I don't think he buys the camera

Why do you say "I don't think he buys the camera" much more often than "I don't think he will buy the camera"?

Compared with the examples below, this phenomenon seems quite strange to me:

I don't think he will give the camera to her./ I don't think he gives the camera to her.

I don't think he will take the camera to the park./ I don't think he takes the camera to the park.

I don't think he will sell the camera to her./ I don't think he sells the camera to her.

I don't think he will purchase the camera./ I don't think he purchases the camera.
  

Top answer

seagull Why do you say "I don't think he buys the camera" much more often than "I don't think he will buy the camera"? I don't know where you get that from. seagull Compared with the examples below, this phenomenon seems quite strange to me: I don't know what you mean by that.

— Teechr

  • seagull Why do you say "I don't think he buys the camera" much more often than "I don't think he will buy the camera"?
  • I don't know where you get that from.
  • seagull Compared with the examples below, this phenomenon seems quite strange to me: I don't know what you mean by that.
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21 Answers
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seagull Why do you say "I don't think he buys the camera" much more often than "I don't think he will buy the camera"?
I don't know where you get that from.
seagullCompared with the examples below, this phenomenon seems quite strange to me:
I don't know what you mean by that.
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When you see sentences like "I don't think he gives the camera to her," is it when someone is referring to media? When you speak about an action that occurs in a book, movie, TV show, or something along those lines, you use present tense.

For example, "I don't think he gives the camera to her in this scene." You don't know what will happen, but art is considered timeless and always exists
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teechrseagull Why do you say "I don't think he buys the camera" much more often than "I don't think he will buy the camera"?I don't know where you get that from.
It might be from something like this.

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seagullWhy do you say "I don't think he buys the camera" much more often than "I don't think he will buy the camera"?
Personally, I don't. I probably use "I don't think he will ..." 99.9% of the time.
It's hard for me to explain something if I'm not convinced it even exists.
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Thank you so much for your reply, Teechr.
Apologies for my unclear question. I'll explain what I meant later.
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Thank you very much for your answer, TheAnneh.
Your answer has reminded me of the fact that the present tense is used in the script of a play.
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Thank you very much indeed, CalifJim.

I also did some Google search and found that seemingly, you use the structure "I don't think he buys the X" much more often than "I don't think he will buy the X."

"I don't think he buys the" (8,730 hits)
"i don't think he will buy the" (4 hits)

Actually, this was quite shocking to me because I had believed "will" should be used
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seagullActually, this was quite shocking to me
Join the club!
seagullWhat do you think?
I think the same as you do.
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Thank you for your replay. I'm glad to hear you agree with me.

This question of mine came from when I came across an English question whose correct answer was "I don't think that you buy the camera at that store."

I found the sentence strange because I'd believed we should say "I don't think that you will buy the camera at that store." in a sentence like this. But Dr. Google s
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First of all, you should not rely on the number of Google hits for evidence of whether a construction is correct or natural.
Secondly, I don't think he will buy the camera is a reasonable reply to Will he buy the camera?
I don't think he buys the camera is not a natural way to phrase it. If I came across this phrase used to mean that he is probabl
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