about tense in this sentence

[harriet_yang]

“I just learned that he hates me. ”

Can I say it this way? He still hates me so I used "hates".

My teacher told me that you cannot (or couldn't?) mix different tenses in a single sentence....Is that true？

[Raymott]

“I just learned that he hates me. ”

Can I say it this way? He still hates me so I used "hates".

My teacher told me that you cannot (or couldn't?) mix different tenses in a single sentence. Is that true？

i) Of course you can mix different tenses in a single sentence. Open any book in English and this question is easily answered. You should ask your teacher what s/he actually meant. We get this assertion occasionally here. I'm sure it's a misunderstanding.

ii) Your sentence is good. In some sentences it would be best to use 'hated' (or the past tense) here, but I agree that 'hates' is more appropriate, especially with 'just'. If you learnt it yesterday, you might say, "Yesterday I was talking to Peter, and I learnt that he hated me." But even so, you could still use "hates".

[harriet_yang]

Thanks a lot! That finally got it off my mind. It's been bothering me.