Wonder if she will come or if she comes?
My grammar book says that I should use present tense forms in conditional clauses with words like "if" to talk about the future.
We won't be able to go out if it rains. (NOT will rain)
Now I wonder if I should use "present tense" when "if" means "whether", as well.
I wonder if she will come to my party this week.
I wonder if she comes to my party this week.
Which one is correct?
For a single possible event or multiple possible events in the future, the modal construction is used:
- I wonder if/whether she will come to the series of lectures on social distancing next year[?]
- I doubt whether [/if, informally] they'll make it. [Free Dictionary, forum]
More informally, the present participle is often used after 'be':
- I wonder if she is coming to my party this week[?]
But for a query or spoken internal question about the possibility of a habitual practice / occurrence / state, present simple is used:
- I wonder if/whether it snows every year in Bavaria? [the question mark prompts for a response, coding for a slight emphasis on the last four words; the italics code for the usual expected emphasis, extra to this]
- Mind you, I wonder if, at their age, they realise that kippers are smoked herrings. [Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English]
So here , 'will come' is required.