EnglishClub ESL Forums

Hello,
i read a sentence today:
if he has time why doesn't he come?

i know that in zero conditional sentences, both "if" clause and main clause need to use present simple, but this sentence simply doesn't belong to zero conditional right?

later i checked about the first conditional, according to 1st conditional, it should be:
if he has time why won't he come?

so i am very confused , which one is right?
if he has time why doesn't he come?
if he has time why won't he come?

cheers

Both of those sentences are correct, they are just used in slightly different situations.

If he has time, why doesn't he come?

can be used if we are talking about a recurring event, say football practice on Saturdays.

If he has time, why won't he come?

could be used as well to talk about someone who doesn't want to come to football practice, but it can also be use for a single event. E.g. if he has time, why won't he come to the party tonight?

Don't worry too much about fitting conditionals into the patterns given by the 1st conditional, 2nd conditional etc. They don't really exist, and are just used as teaching tools. You can actually mix the patterns up more than you'd think.