Which is correct in English?

Question

I found this sentence in the song,

Basic:I want to let you know how much I miss you.

I thought.....

She wants to let he know(s) how much she miss(es) him.

He wanted to let he (know/knew) how much she miss(ed) him.

I have no idea how I could write this.

I'd like to hear your opinion if you don't mind.

Answer 1

I want to let you know how much I miss you.

I thought.....   <--- nothing wrong here

She wants to let him know how much she misses him. (present tense)

He wanted to let her know how much he missed her. (past tense)

Answer 2

I'm probably making the explanation more complicated than what you wanted, but here goes. There are two views, natural sequence of tenses and abstract sequence of tenses, and even English grammarians have been debating over this issue. This is how I would explain it:

1. "She wants to let him know how much she misses him." (Explicitly: She currently wants to let him know how much she currently misses him, for example, telling him this while they are still away from each other.)

2. "She wants to let him know how much she missed him." (Explicitly: She currently wants to let him know how much she missed him in the past, for example, telling him this once they are reunited again.)

3. "She wanted to let him know how much she missed him." (Explicitly: She wanted sometime in the past to let him know that she missed him in the past. This can also have the same sense as Sentence 2 in ordinary speech.)

4. "She wanted to let him know how much she misses him." (Explicitly: She wanted sometime in the past--but she doesn't anymore--to let him know how much she currently misses him. This can also have the same sense of Sentence 1 in ordinary speech.)

5. "She wanted to let him know how much she had missed him." (She wanted sometime in the past to let him know how much she had missed him at a time prior to the time of wanting to let him know.)

6. "She had wanted to let him know how much she missed him." (She had wanted to let him know--but no longer wants to let him know--how much she missed him sometime in the past.)

Answer 3

Hey, that's a very advanced and subtle question.  You must be doing quite well with your study of English.

Here's a little more you can learn:

English has a system called Sequence of Tenses which helps communicate relative time.

He wanted to let her know how much he was missing her.

This one means the "wanting" and the "missing" were happening at the same time. (present tens in the subordinate clause indicates "same time" as the main verb.)

He wanted to let her know how much he missed her.

This one probably means the same ... same time for wanting and missing.

He wanted to let her know how much he had missed her.

This means the missing happened earlier, before the wanting.

and of course

He wanted to let her know how much he would miss her.

He'll miss her later.