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She promised me that she (to ring up) me as soon as she (to return) from London.

She (to tell) me that the plane (to take off) at exactly 5 o'clock.

I learned that she (to get) a parcel from her parents one of these days and (to be going) to tell her about it.

I think that there must be:

She promised me that she would ring me up as soon as she returned from London.

She told me that the plane takes off at exactly 5 o'clock.

I learned that she will get a parcel from her parents one of these days and is going to tell her about it

but I'm not sure about the tenses with "as soon as". In the second one, I know that with the scheduled actions we use pr. simple but what about the first part where we have past simple? Is it possible to mix the tenses? And in the 3rd we have "learned" in past and then "these days" which is future.

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    You will get better responses if you tell us what you think so we can help you better. If you edit your question and say why you think what you think that would be best.
    – mdewey
    Feb 23, 2021 at 14:15
  • ok, thank you. I tried to
    – Emily
    Feb 23, 2021 at 14:20

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A lot depends here on the overall context in which the sentences are found so for some of them there are several possibilities.

She promised me that she (to ring up) me as soon as she (to return) from London.

Your suggestion is

She promised me that she would ring me up as soon as she returned from London.

That seems fine. It would not be wrong to say had returned

She (to tell) me that the plane (to take off) at exactly 5 o'clock.

Your suggestion

She told me that the plane takes off at exactly 5 o'clock.

That is fine too as long as we are still before 5 o'clock. Otherwise you would say

She told me that the plane would take off at exactly 5 o'clock.

It would also be correct there to say was going to take off.

I learned that she (to get) a parcel from her parents one of these days and (to be going) to tell her about it.

Your suggestion here has gone a bit astray

I learned that she will get a parcel from her parents one of these days and is going to tell her about it

I think the meaning here is that the other person does not know yet about her parcel so it is more likely to be

I learned that she will get a parcel from her parents one of these days and I am going to tell her about it

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  • She told me that the plane took off at exactly 5 o'clock could be possible too or not
    – user5577
    Feb 24, 2021 at 10:51
  • thank you so much for your detailed response. They are separate tense exercises without any text that is why it is a bit unclear when what happened
    – Emily
    Feb 24, 2021 at 12:29

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