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Which sentence would be proper to use if somebody said that he will start a new job at somewhere about a week ago and if I would like to mention about it now on a mail.

You said you are going to start a new job last week.

You said you were going to start a new job last week.

You said you will going to start a new job last week.

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    Did he make the statement a week ago, or did he make the statement at sometime in the past that the job would start a week ago? ( [Last week you said] you were going to start a new job or You said that [last week you would start a new job.] )
    – Adam
    Commented Jan 13, 2015 at 19:54
  • @Adam Thank you so much.Almost the same time that he said about 8 days ago .He started working about 2 days after he had said that.He started working about 6 days ago.
    – Mrt
    Commented Jan 13, 2015 at 19:59
  • In which situation , which sentence sould I choose according to your scenario by the way.
    – Mrt
    Commented Jan 13, 2015 at 20:01
  • #2. Neither 1 nor 3 sound correct.
    – mkennedy
    Commented Jan 13, 2015 at 22:23

2 Answers 2

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"You said you were going to start a new job last week."

The first sentence implies that the subject you are speaking to stated one week ago that they were going to start a new job, but it does not clearly imply when their start date was:

"You said you are going to start a new job last week."

The second indicates that the subject you are speaking to said they were going to start working a new job beginning last week:

"You said you were going to start a new job last week."

This is not proper English:

"You said you will going to start a new job last week."

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  • Actually I did not think about much on where to put "last week" when I was asking.My corcern was should I use "are" or "were".Because you and Adam pointed out that, can we make it clearer? Consider he mentioned it last week and he is going to start working on Monday.I would say "Last week you said you were going to start a new job on Monday or on January 13"
    – Mrt
    Commented Jan 13, 2015 at 22:33
  • So for your intended meaning, @Murat, the second sentence is correct - you are discussing something said in the past about an event in the past - use were. The first sentence could be correct for a different meaning, but it would be a less clear way of expressing it than Last week you said you are going to start a new job, but you're still moping around the house. When is this new job going to start?
    – Adam
    Commented Jan 13, 2015 at 22:34
  • @Adam I got it now the difference between "are" and "were" in these sentences.Thank you
    – Mrt
    Commented Jan 13, 2015 at 22:38
  • BTW @Murat - your comments would be easier to read (and conventionally "correct") if you were to put a space after the period at the end of the sentences. Like this. See?
    – Adam
    Commented Jan 13, 2015 at 22:38
  • @Adam ok. How about this sentence "Last week you said you were going to start a new job on Monday or on January 13". I don't see him but presume he is working now.
    – Mrt
    Commented Jan 13, 2015 at 22:42
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How come you can use "be going to" in the present to express an intention in the past? It sounds very awkward when you say "you are going to start a new job last week". However, it'll be grammatically correct if you form the sentence as follows:

You said last week, "I am going to start a new job" or "you said last week that you were going to start a new job".

As for the second sentence "you said you were going to start a new job last week" is grammatically correct. You can use "be going to" in the past to express an intention in the past.

The sentence #3 is grammatically wrong. First, you cannot say "will going". Instead, it should be "will be going". Second, even if you use "will be going", the sentence will be incorrect as you cannot use the future continuous tense for an action or event in the past.

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  • Thank you. If you concern adverbs of time is my sentence ok? "you said last week you were going to start a new job on Monday/on January 13"
    – Mrt
    Commented Jan 14, 2015 at 4:21
  • @Murat, I don't know which sentence you are talking about? Out of 3 sentences, only # 2 is OK.
    – Khan
    Commented Jan 14, 2015 at 4:41
  • sorry. I meant this sentence "you said last week you were going to start a new job on Monday/on January 13"
    – Mrt
    Commented Jan 14, 2015 at 4:43
  • @Murat, I think it's OK.
    – Khan
    Commented Jan 14, 2015 at 7:11

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