אם תרצה

[Ali Smith]

שלום!

Two native speakers were talking. One of them said, "אני יכול לספר לך משהו?" The other replied, "כן, אם תרצה" (I think the last word is pronounced tirtse)
If he meant "Yes, if you want." shouldn't it have been "כן, אם אתה רוצה"?

תודה רבה

 

[Techref]

The word תרצה itself already implies the 2nd person.
So you don’t really need the אתה

 

[Ali Smith]

Yes, but why use the future tense?

 

[elroy]

It's common and idiomatic. Another example is אם תוכל.

The future-tense versions sound somewhat more polite than the present-tense versions.

 

[amikama]

Both אם תרצה and אם אתה רוצה are correct.

Note that in English "if" is never followed by a verb in the future tense, although semantically it may refer to a future action. So "if you want" may mean either אם אתה רוצה or אם תרצה in Hebrew.