I wanted to know/ I want to know

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

hello,
I came across the sentence like this:

I’ll be working in a Starbucks in like 2 days.
I wanted to know if it is hard to work at Starbucks.

why they used past tense instead of present tense?

please explain,

thanks

2

Hello Candylane,

You seem to be a little confused. They have not used the past tense, but the future tense, because it is something that hasn’t taken place yet.

By the way, use of ‘like’ in that sentence is very conversational and informal, it’s not grammatically correct – the word is being used as a ‘filler’.

3

thank you for helping me out.

I am sorry but I am asking the same question again:

I’ll be working in a Starbucks next week.
“I wanted[u] to know if it is hard to work there.”

Why is past tense like “wanted to know”… used instead of present tense like “want to know” ?

I mean How about saying like “I want to know ( I’d like to know) if it is hard to work there”.

thanks[/u]

4

Hello Candylane,

I’m sorry I misunderstood the first time. I thought you were asking about the first sentence only and that the second sentence was a comment.

I presume that the context will make that clear. It’s impossible to say why that tense was chosen without additional information. It is possible that there was a specific reason, but it is equalluy possible that the person just made a poor grammatical choice.