Is The Sentence "mike Said They Are Interesting" Grammatically Wrong?

[yektaranswer]

If yes, please explain it.

[jno]

sequence of tenses: said is past tense so are should be past tense too - Mike said they were interesting.

Or use quote marks to indicate exactly what he did say: Mike said, "They are interesting."

[Prudie]

It's an example of the historic present tense - the one that has upset John Humphreys lately.

[Buenchico]

Irrespective of whether 'are' or 'were' is used, the word 'that' seems to be missing anyway.

e.g. "Mike and Sue went to see the new exhibits yesterday. Mike said that they were interesting". (Past tense throughout because the actions all occurred yesterday and that's when Mike was interested in the exhibits).

OR

"I've sent some website links to Mike and Sue. Mike said that they are interesting and that he'll look at them in detail later" (Past tense for 'Mike said' but present tense for 'they are interesting' because Mike retains an ongoing interest)

[jno]

I'm not a great thatter, Chris, and I don't believe [that] it's widely thought to be required these days

http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/reportedspeech.html#That

[Buenchico]

^^^While I stand by what I've written as being grammatically valid, it occurs to me that most people would probably say "Mike says that they are interesting and that he'll look at them in detail later", using 'to say' as meaning 'to hold a viewpoint' rather than its literal meaning of 'to utter words'.

[Buenchico]

Jno:
I've done a bit of freelance journalism in my time and I can assure you that, when you're being paid by the word, 'that' is always included ;-)

[jno]

lol, yes... and they probably pay some sub-editor to take it out again.