Is it okay to mix tenses in the same sentence? Yes, if what you’re saying is in different time zones.
For example, these sentences aren’t saying the same thing. “Peter told me you were unhappy with the way I handled the meeting.” “Peter told me you are unhappy with the way I handled the meeting.”
The first implies you were unhappy but might be okay about it now. The second implies you’re still not happy.
This is a common problem with reported speech. There’s an assumption that since you’re reporting something which has happened, you need to use the past tense throughout the sentence. Not so.
The rest of the sentence needs to be in the appropriate tense.
Of course, the alternative is to speak like football pundits who use the present tense for everything – even when the match took place minutes, hours or years ago!
“Donaldson passes the ball to Griggsy but Banes intercepts and flips it over to Wilson who bangs it into the back of the net.”
“There’s an assumption that since you’re reporting something which has happened, you need to use the past tense throughout the sentence. Not so.”
That helps me a alot!
Thanks very much, Ade. I’m glad my post and examples helped. Or should that be ‘help’? 😁
Even though they were millionaires they drive old cars.
Is this sentence correct
Hi MK, no the sentence doesn’t make sense as it stands. By saying ‘were’ as opposed to ‘are’ you’re writing about them in the past tense. You’d need to say “Even though they were millionaires, they drove old cars.” OR “Even though they are millionaires, they drive old cars.”
But isn’t it perfectly ok because “Even though they were millionaires,” refers to the fact that in the past they were millionaires and “they drive old cars” refers to now. AKA, “Even though they were something, they do this now”
Thanks, Harver. Yes, it is possible that they were millionaires in the past and drive old cars now. But mixing the tenses is not good grammar. For the sentence to read well, you’d need to say something like, “Even though they were millionaires in the past, they drive old cars now.”
Or perhaps , “Even though they were once millionaires, they drive old cars.”
Or perhaps, “Even though they were once millionaires, they drive old cars.”
Ooh nice, Anna. Beautifully concise. 😁
“I packed a coat because I don’t know how cold it will be.”
Grammatically correct.