Yesterday John told Fred he was at the office

[Freeguy]

Which one is more correct?

1. Yesterday John told Fred he was at the office then and suggested they meet in about half an hour.
2. Yesterday John told Fred he was at the office at the moment and suggested they meet in about half an hour.

(My Net is slow and I can't see that a similar post has been sent or not.)

 

[emsr2d2]

I wouldn't use either.

Yesterday, John told Fred he was in/at the office and suggested they meet in about half an hour.

 

[Freeguy]

The test was:

Yesterday John told Fred he was at the office .... and suggested they ...... in about half an hour.

1. then - met
2. then meet
3. at the moment - meet
4. at the moment- met

 

[emsr2d2]

In all honesty, I don't like the combination of "Yesterday" with "then" or the combination of "Yesterday" with "at the moment" so I would say there is no correct answer. However, I imagine the writer of the test was looking for #3.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I would choose 3.

 

[Freeguy]

Can't we say this is "indirect speech" and due to that we should turn "now" in that time into "then"? I'm just asking for my grammar knowledge. I'm not questioning your answers.
Thank you

 

[MikeNewYork]

Yes, we could.

 

[Tdol]

It's not a very good question IMO. Sometimes a test writer has an idea in mind and doesn't think through the other options.