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I don't understand the use of "did" here. I am confused whether it should be did or does.

I wonder what my speech would be. And if Bill would help me with it if he didn’t go to New York and write plays.

Also will the construction with "will" be

Bill will help me with it if he doesn’t go to New York.

It's from "Perks of Being a Wallflower". Bill is Charlie (the narrator)'s teacher. The book is in the form of letters written by Charlie (not to Bill). In previous letter Charlie mentioned that Bill wants to go to New York and write plays but the decision isn't final. Now in this letter Charlie is imagining future. He's thinking about graduation speech.

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This sentence is talking about an imagined future, based on some condition being different. In this construction, Charlie is considering the future moment of writing this speech and wondering whether Bill will be helpful. At this moment, in the hypothetical, Bill is already in New York or not in New York, so Charlie's use of 'didn't' instead of 'doesn't' reflects the past tense of this imagined future. 'Hadn't gone' and 'wasn't going' both imply that Charlie knows Bill will go, which may not be the case in the uncertain future of the Charlie's actual present.

I wonder what my speech would be [if .....]. And [I also wonder] if Bill would help me with [my speech] [in the case that he doesn't] go to New York and write plays.

I agree with you that if he knew that Bill would help him if Bill were in town, he could say "Bill will help me with it, if he doesn't go to New York".

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  • Bill would help me if he didn't go [all the time] to NY. Unlikely.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 2, 2022 at 17:12
  • Sorry? What do you mean
    – L. B.
    Commented May 3, 2022 at 5:31
  • Ok, let's try it another way. There is no imagined future at all. This is the conditional: If X, then Y. But for it to be conditional as written, it would have to refer to habitual action. Bill would help me if he didn't go to NY all the time [or every week or every month].
    – Lambie
    Commented May 3, 2022 at 15:19
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The rule at work is poor AmE spoken English:

SAMPLE: I wonder what my speech would be. And if Bill would help me with it if he didn’t go to New York and write plays.

It should be:

  • I wonder what my speech would be. And if Bill would help me with it if he hadn't gone to New York to write plays. [one possibility: he went]

OR:

I wonder what my speech would be. And if Bill would help me with it if he wasn't going to New York to write plays. [another possibility: we was going to go]

CONDITIONAL: this is all conditional: He would help me, if he didn't go to NY [all the time, habitual action].

The sentence above is unlikely. It is only grammatical if it is habitual. There is no indication of that.

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    I don't think it's a fair or useful judgment to call it 'poor' spoken English. Also, the original sentence is using 'if he didn't go' in talking about the future to indicate that Bill hasn't certainly gone or not gone, so 'hadn't gone' is a less accurate replacement than 'wasn't going'.
    – L. B.
    Commented May 1, 2022 at 23:03
  • @L.B. It is poor; I would not know, if he didn't go. You can't use "If he didn't go" to talk about the future. It is an conditional: If he didn't go, where is he?
    – Lambie
    Commented May 2, 2022 at 0:18
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    How do you know it's bad English? It could mean he regularly goes to New York and writes plays, in which case this "did" would be the correct tense.
    – gotube ♦
    Commented May 2, 2022 at 2:35
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    Hey personally I didn't even downvote you but if we're wishing I wish you wouldn't prioritize a really limited (limiting!) set of standard grammatical conventions over the natural language as it's successfully used by people who have spoken it their entire lives- for example me / some guy who wrote a bestselling book which was later made into a movie with Emma Watson in it (neither here nor there). Some people asking questions on here are really into grammar details & I respect that but a lot of people just want to speak the real live language and the prescriptivism isn't always useful. My 2¢.
    – L. B.
    Commented May 3, 2022 at 5:27
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    If your answers weren't so judgmental (accepting that other views besides yours can be correct) you would get less downvotes. I know you have gotten this feedback before and still you have not modified your behavior to accept and act on good-faith criticism. The answer's format could also be improved, this is not a clear and easy to read explanation.
    – mjjf
    Commented May 18, 2022 at 20:34

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