I was thinking, if you are/were interested, you could

Question

I was thinking, if you are / were interested, you could come over to dinner tomorrow.

Could someone please tell me if are and were are both natural here?

Answer 1

I was thinking, if you are / were interested, you could come over for dinner tomorrow.

This is a good question, and a great phrase to boot! Be mindful that as dinner is an event and not a location, for sounds more natural.

Both your examples can be used, but in different context:

We are planning to get together this week. I was thinking, if you are interested, you could come over for dinner tomorrow.

I couldn’t fully read your response at the meeting. I was thinking, if you were interested, you could come over for dinner tomorrow.

TL;DR In other words, are is probably most correct, but complex time context can allow for use of were

Answer 2

I'm not so sure about this, but were may sound better.
Or you could say:

I was wondering if you could come over to dinner tomorrow

Asking whether the other person is interested is somewhat captured in the tone of the statement.

Answer 3

To me, the correct answer is "are". If you ARE interested, you could come over to dinner tomorrow. "Were" is conditional and of an abstract idea.

Answer 4

I actually disagree with both @Aaron John Sabu and @Ara because it is an issue of tense. I believe that 'are' would work better because it is in the present tense. Whereas 'were' is in the past tense meaning 'if you were [previously] interested' vs are, the present tense, 'if you are [currently] interested.'