indirect/reported speech

[mungbeanz]

Sarah was going on holiday and asked John to look after her cats.

"Sarah told me she was going on holiday and had asked John to look after her cats."

Is this correct and, if so, why does the 'she was going on holiday' not change tense?

[Chinajan]

It depends upon when Sarah was speaking.

If she is speaking after she has asked John to look after her cats but before she has gone on holiday then the reported speech is correct.

It would only need to be different if she was speaking after she had departed, "Sarah told me she went on holiday having asked John to look after her cats.' or after her return, 'Sarah told me she had been on holiday after asking John to look after her cats.'

[barmy]

I think it should read "Sarah told me that she was going on holiday and had asked John to look after her cats."

The past tense portion bit is "Sarah told me" and not going on holiday.

Just my view but I'm not a linguist.

[MarkRae]

"Sarah told me she was going on holiday" would be correct only if Sarah rang you while she was travelling to her holiday destination.

The grammatically correct version is: "Sarah told me that she would be going on holiday and had asked John to look after her cats."

[rojash]

Mark's essentially correct, but his answer is a little pedantic.

It's fairly common usage to say "I am going" in place of "I am intending to go", or or "I will be going".

If I say to you "I am going on holiday", you can say "Rojash told me that he was going on holiday".

[mungbeanz]

thanks for the answers everyone. Rojash, does that mean that my sentence is correct?

[tearinghair]

Doesn't it depend on the tense of the original direct speech? I think each tense goes back one into the past in reported speech. If Sarah said 'I am going on holiday and have asked John to look after my cats' what mungbeanz has written is correct. If she said 'I will be going on holiday and have asked John to look after my cats' that would become 'Sarah said she would be going on holiday and had asked....etc.'

[rojash]

"Rojash, does that mean that my sentence is correct?"

Yes.