Wanted to know

Question

1. I wanted to know if you were going to the party tomorrow.

2. I wanted to know if you are going to the party.

(the party is tomorrow)

1. I wanted to check if you had the item.

(Will this still work if I want to ask if she has the item?)

2. I wanted to check if you have the item.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

fold scarf 1011. I wanted to know if you were going to the party tomorrow.2. I wanted to know if you are going to the party. (the party is tomorrow)

Both are unremarkable, except that we contract in speech more often than not and would say "you're" rather than "you are". "Were" is perhaps more likely, probably because you have already blown tense out of the water with "wanted", which is natural polite English. Also, "were" has replaced the subjunctive "be", which went out with sword fighting. You want to know if she is going to the party, but you are scared of her, so you tread lightly with the whole deferential formula.

fold scarf 1011. I wanted to check if you had the item.(Will this still work if I want to ask if she has the item?)

You are asking whether the item is in stock right then. For the sentence to mean that you're asking whether it was in stock at some time in the past would require an unusual set of circumstances, and you would probably make it clearer with something like "I wanted to check if you had the item at that time." You use "had" for the present because of the tug of the subjunctive after "if" but mostly because we tend to backshift in cases like this one, to change the tense illogically to match the one we started with. English ain't Boolean algebra. Come to think of it, I remember how refreshing it was to learn Boolean algebra because everything made perfect sense all the time, unlike English.

fold scarf 1012. I wanted to check if you have the item.

This is fine and is clearer.

Wanted to know

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