Friday, July 19, 2019

Non-usage of Sequence of tenses



He gave me his room number just in case I change my mind.



Why doesn't the rule of sequence tenses use in this sentence?


PS At the same time, why is it written as "room number" instead of "room's number"/"number of his room"?



Answer



There is a mix of tenses because, evidently, the first person is speaking in the present but the room number was received by them in the past. In other words, the person is already in possession of the room number, and they may yet change their mind.


If the first person was telling a story that occurred entirely in the past, then they would put the entire sentence in the past tense:




He gave me his room number just in case I changed my mind.



This would be appropriate if there was no longer any opportunity for the first person to change their mind.


"Room number" is idiomatic, just like "telephone number", as opposed to "my telephone's number". It is the number of the room.


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