past and present tense in one sentence?

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thomas615

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I read this sentence and I am wondering why both tenses are used "told" "is chosen"


He told the reporters that he would remain as president until a successor is chosen.
 

Rover_KE

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I would say '...until a successor was chosen'.

Rover
 

Raymott

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I read this sentence and I am wondering why both tenses are used "told" "is chosen"


He told the reporters that he would remain as president until a successor is chosen.
It is common and normal to have different tenses in one sentence.
 

philo2009

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I read this sentence and I am wondering why both tenses are used "told" "is chosen"

He told the reporters that he would remain as president until a successor is chosen.

Like Rover K E, I too am more comfortable observing traditional tense concord here with 'was chosen'.

However, although informally one might well say

He told the reporters that he will remain as president until a successor is chosen.

, I confess to finding the particular choice of tense combinations here rather unnatural.
 

Raymott

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PS: I agree. The first sentence is unnatural.
My previous reply was more a response to the title. I should have made clear that I agreed with Rover, and was merely adding something.
 

thomas615

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Hello

thank you for your help.

I read this sentence on the website also using both tenses....why "it is unlikely"
I am confused

He said it's unlikely his client would be released from custody until his documents arrived in Hong Kong and were evaluated by the security officials, which could take as long as one month.
 

5jj

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Hello

thank you for your help.

I read this sentence on the website also using both tenses....why "it is unlikely"
I am confused

He said it's unlikely his client would be released from custody until his documents arrived in Hong Kong and were evaluated by the security officials, which could take as long as one month.

This is the same situation as with your previous example. Most of us would write, " He said it was unlikely...".
 
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