Wednesday, December 20, 2017

verb tense in reported speech



  1. I told Cindy we would not be able to eat American Chinese food again for a couple of years, once we moved to Shanghai.


  2. I told Cindy we would not be able to eat American Chinese food again for a couple of years, once we move to Shanghai.





CONTEXT: We have not moved yet. It will happen in the future. But I am recording a conversation that happened in the past--a few hours ago.




My question is: Should I write "once we moved to Shanghai" or "once we move to Shanghai"?



That is, should I use "moved" (#1) in order to be consistent with the tense in the rest of the sentence?






Update (16 hours later): When I wrote my question last night I didn't realise that the tense of "will" should be, and in this case can be consistent with the tense of "move". It is true the impossibility of eating American Chinese food (I crave General Tso's chicken) will occur in the future. I feel now more comfortable saying "I told Cindy that we will not..., once we move...".

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