Part 2: si clauses with conditional

Question

In my last post we decided that the correct translation for: What could the boy buy if his mother says, "Do not spend more than ten dollars!"? was: ¿Qué podría comprar el chico si su madre le dijera, "¡No gastes más de diez dólares!".

However, one answer really made me curious. I know with the si clause, if present tense is in one clause, the other is either present or future. If one clause is conditional, the other one must be imperfect subjunctive- just like the translation about (podría and dijera). But I was told that by switching the order of the sentence, I could use the present tense of decir (dice) instead of imperfect subjunctive (dijera).

I can also make a case for no subjunctive in the in the first clause. ¿Qué podría comprar el chico si su madre le dice-....-- I can justify this by turning it around thusly: Si su madre le dice, "No gastes más de diez dólares," qué podría comprar el muchacho.

I looked for the rules/exception of this si clause (present tense with dice, then conditional tense with poder). I only found the same rules as I said above, which would mean the correct sentences should be: ¿Qué podría comprar el chico si su madre le dijera, "¡No gastes más de diez dólares!". AND ¿Qué puede comprar el chico si su madre le dice, "¡No gastes más de diez dólares!". OR Si su madre le dice , "¡No gastes más de diez dólares!", qué puede comprar el chico? AND Si su madre le dijera , "¡No gastes más de diez dólares!", qué podría comprar el chico?

I think what the person meant to write was: Si su madre le dice, "¡No gastes más de diez dólares!" ¿Qué podría comprar el muchacho? But I still don't understand why this would be correct.

Can anyone support the exception that present tense and conditional can be used together in a si clause with links or an explanation because I can't find any and cannot quite create an explanation myself? Thank you.

I did add some links to your earlier question - Mardle, Jun 4, 2016

I saw Mardle. Thank you for that. But the links didn't help me with this question. - Ramonaspiker, Jun 4, 2016

I hadn't realised you had seen them. - Mardle, Jun 4, 2016

Oh I commented 20 minutes ago on your answer with the links in them - Ramonaspiker, Jun 4, 2016

The answer (sentence in bold) that this person gave me breaks the rules that the links you shared with me had. But since this person has been a Spanish teacher at a university for over 25 years, there must be a reason for - Ramonaspiker, Jun 4, 2016

why the sentence in bold is allowed: Si su madre le dice, "No gastes más de diez dólares", qué podría comprar el muchacho" - Ramonaspiker, Jun 4, 2016

The problem is that I have no idea where she got these rules from. I'd like to learn this cool way of using a si clause with present tense followed by conditional, but I don't even think it is grammatically correct because I cannot find this on the web - Ramonaspiker, Jun 4, 2016

http://eljuego.free.fr/Fichas_gramatica/FG_estructuras_condicional.htm - 000a35ff, Jun 4, 2016

I would just like to say how much I appreciate someone who is trying to learn things by investigating on the web, and checking things out here. :) - bosquederoble, Jun 4, 2016

Great link astotxua! Thanks so much! - Ramonaspiker, Jun 5, 2016

Answer 1

I think what the person meant to write was: Si su madre le dice, "¡No gastes más de diez dólares!" ¿Qué podría comprar el muchacho? But I still don't understand why this would be correct.

Grammatically I suppose that this is acceptable only because "¿Qué podría comprar el muchacho?" is a separate sentence, but even for just a language textbook example it still makes more grammatical sense to use simple present tense of poder.

IF it is not a separate sentence, it´s not correct.

That's what I thought. Thanks a bunch Julian! - Ramonaspiker, Jun 5, 2016

You´re welcome a bunch! - 005faa61, Jun 5, 2016