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Is there any difference in meaning among the 3 following sentences?
What I meant was whether that is correct or not.
What I meant was whether that was correct or not.
What I meant was whether that would be correct or not.
If so, an explanation will be great.
Also is the 1st sentence semantically/grammatically correct? (could using "is" & "was" in the same sentence make the meaning of the sentence ambigous here?)
A couple of things.
What I was asking was whether...
would be clearer and more idiomatic than what I meant was whether...
There is no rigid rule that absolutely requires the tense of the whether-clause to agree with the past tense in the main clause, though such agreement is good. When it doesn't agree there are consequences.
What I was asking was whether that's correct or not. conversational / colloquial
What I was asking was whether that was correct or not. neutral
What I was asking was whether that would be correct or not. perhaps a tad more polite than neutral
