announcned that it will

Several days ago I was reading news on my iPhone on my way to university and bumped into this passage or whatever it's called. Usually when I come across something interesting I ask native speakers to explain some specifics of the English language.



I don't quite understand how to upload files correctly, so I'm sorry in advance for this huge image .

The thing I'm interested in is the very first sentence. How is it possible to mix "announced" and "will + verb"? Isn't it supposed to be "would convene", is it? I'm a bit confused with this one. I hope you'll pour some light on this issue.

P.S if the image somehow adversely affects workability of your device, I'll try my best to shrink it.

Boris Tatarenko said:

The thing I'm interested in is the very first sentence. How is it possible to mix "announced" and "will + verb"? Isn't it supposed to be "would convene", is it? I'm a bit confused with this one. I hope you'll pour some light on this issue.

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The sentence in question: The World Health Organization announced Thursday that it will convene an emergency meeting....

This if fine as written. The announcement occurred in the past, hence the past simple; the meeting will be convened in the future in the timeframe of the passage.

If the passage was published on February 12th, the announcement occurred on February 11th and the meeting will occur sometime after the 12th.

If the meeting had already happened, the sentence would have to read ...it would convene an emergency meeting.... For example: President Lincoln announced the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22nd, 1862. The proclamation announced that all slaves in territory that was still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be free.

Piscean said:

This is an example of reported speech. Backshifting (eg, 'will' to 'would') is correct, but not essential, if the situation reported is still valid at the time of reporting

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What would you personally use? As for me it irritates my ears a bit . My hands are itiching to use "would".

The is no problem with the sentence. They announced in the past what is going to happen in the future.

As it's hot news being rushed to your phone, I think will works better. If it were history being reported, I'd use would.