@robertgreate,
robertgreate wrote:The first one is: "The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development made the projections Friday in its annual report to Congress on FHA, saying its efforts to improve the agency’s finances were paying off. "
My question is would it be fine to replace" were paying off" with are paying off if we are talking about the current situation?
Tenses should match, depending on the time being discussed.
The present: on that particular Friday, you could have said "The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
makes the projections
today in its annual report to Congress on FHA, saying its efforts to improve the agency’s finances
are paying off. "
Later, discussing a past event, you would say "The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
made the projections
Friday in its annual report to Congress on FHA, saying its efforts to improve the agency’s finances
were paying off. "
Quote:The second one is: "The BoE’s Financial Policy Committee last month said it was examining impediments to securitisation markets, arguing that it may be suffering from “lingering stigma” and banks’ efforts to shrink their balance sheets."
My question is would it be okay to replace "it was examining" with had examined?
It would not be okay. The report uses the imperfect tense ("was examining"). We use that tense to describe a continuous action that was in progress at a particular time in the past - the committee was in the process of examining impediments, and it had not yet finished that process. The report would have used the past perfect 'had examined' if the committee said it had finished the examination.
Quote:The third question is could you tell me which sentence is correct? Obama said last week he had decided to take action to cope with this issue or Obama said last week he decided to take action to cope with this issue. Are they both correct in terms of tense usage?
If Obama said last week "I have decided" then the past perfect (had decided) is the correct tense to use when reporting (in the present) what he said.
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