I have a question about the use of tenses in reported speech. Please read the following dialogue and let me know if which one's grammatically correct. #1. "Oh, James told me that he WAS going to be busy these days and, if anything turns up, I should wait till later to talk to him," Sandra said to her mother. #2. "Oh, James told me that he IS going to be busy these days and, if anything turns up, I should wait till later to talk to him," Sandra said to her mother. So which one's correct? By the way, this James guy only just told Sandra (like 5 minutes ago in the story) that he was going to be busy these days. So when Sandra told her mother this, James was, in fact, still in a state of being busy. If you know what I mean? Also, should I use "if anything TURNS UP" or "if anything TURNED UP"?
2 because James is presently going to be busy in a few days. Not in the past And it's turns up because it's 1st conditional/future scenario that might occur
As long as it's appropriate for the context, tenses in the same sentence can be different Sentence 2 is correct, the tense switched because it fits the time of the action. Use tenses as fitting according to the time, so it doesn't matter if one sentence has all 3 kinds, if the time of action calls for it Sentence 1, even though the tenses are the same, the rule is used incorrectly Sentence 1 can be right if, for example: Oh, James told me that he was going to be busy two weeks ago Idk if that makes sense
this is pretty helpful. thanks. was told to stay consistent either in past or present tense. thu sometimes hard to do esp given in that situation. cleared up a few things.