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A: "It is difficult to fight against peer pressure."
B: "Peer pressure has its benefits as well."

So shouldn't this be:

A said that it is difficult to fight against peer pressure. To which B replied that peer pressure has its benefits as well.

Or is it:

A said that it was difficult to fight against peer pressure. To which B replied that peer pressure had its benefits as well.

Just making sure that the latter is likely the incorrect one.

Edit: So one of the answers in a similar question 7964 suggested by @StuartF says

... As the authors of the ‘Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English’ explain: Simple past tense has a special use in reported speech or thought. The original speech or thoughts may have been in present tense, but past tense is usually used for the reports . . . Notice that the circumstances may still be continuing even though past tense is used (My emphasis).

So what if I changed the question slightly to add another sentence.

B: "Peer pressure has its benefits as well. Our peers also motivate and inspire us to do better and work hard."

So would the backshifting be:

... To which B replied that peer pressure had its benefits as well, it motivated and inspired them to do better and work hard.

Or,

... To which B replied that peer pressure had its benefits as well, it motivates and inspires them to do better and work hard.

Would the following sentence also follow the past tense throughout like the first did?

ray
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    Did you mean indirect speech, where you refer to words without directly quoting the speaker? Or a passive voice? – Yosef Baskin Apr 27 '22 at 14:29
  • @YosefBaskin Indirect speech – ray Apr 27 '22 at 14:34
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    There are a lot of similar questions about what tense to use here: see e.g. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/92019/is-it-sometimes-appropriate-to-use-past-tense-when-stating-a-fact https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/16388/tense-change-previous-actions-on-something-thats-currently-true/ https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/7964/he-didnt-know-where-new-jersey-was – Stuart F Apr 27 '22 at 14:38
  • @StuartF I've read the answers, while the answers suggest that both of them are correct but using the past tense is generally preferred regardless of whether the circumstance is still continuing or not.

    Also I've added a follow-up question as an edit.

     – ray Apr 27 '22 at 15:03
  • I feel a slight difference in meaning in the two statements. The one with "has," I feel, subtly implies an "always." An author could use the "had" version to imply that peer pressure at one time had its benefits, but perhaps those benefits had not proven universal across time. – Cary Millsap Apr 27 '22 at 16:26

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The answer should be - A said that it is difficult to fight against peer pressure as/(futher he added that) youth easily gets influenced by the lifestyle of its peers.

The reason for not changing the tense is that this is a fact and its still true.

To which B replied that it has its benefits as well it also motivated and inspired them to do better and work hard.

Reason: at last they are saying our which is their personal view, so tense change is required.

Angad singh
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