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All dictionaries I consulted say that "nog" is not an English word. （self-made)

Will this kind of entanglement of tenses be acceptable for English? At first, I used past tense, then switched to present tense immediately. But I think it fits well into the reality,my action of consulting a dictionary has become the past, whereas the dictionaries themselves still remain the same, and say the same thing about that word.

benlogos
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1 Answers1

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Firstly, your usage of 'says' is wrong. Since you've mentioned 'dictionaries', which is plural, you should use 'say'.

All dictionaries I consulted say that "nog" is not an English word.

This doesn't seem wrong to me.

However, I would rather use the perfect tense and say:

All dictionaries I've consulted say that "nog" is not an English word.

It also sounds better to my ear if I add 'the':

All the dictionaries I've consulted say that "nog" is not an English word.

mikhailcazi
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    You are right about 'say' and 'says'. But I am wondering why you talk of the 'past perfect'? What you have written here is the simple 'perfect'. By 'past perfect' I always assume that people mean what I would call the 'pluperfect', which in this instance would have been 'All dictionaries I had consulted...' But whether you use the present or the perfect depends on context anyway. It is not a question of preference. Finally I see no value in including 'the'. – WS2 Oct 27 '13 at 08:13
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    "have consulted" may be better. But "consulted" is permissible, right? Granted that, can "consulted" be used together with "say"? – benlogos Oct 27 '13 at 08:45
  • @WS2 I'm sorry, that was a genuine mistake. I meant present perfect. I'll edit it right away. And about the 'the', I've said, it just sounds better to me, and is what I would have said. :) – mikhailcazi Oct 27 '13 at 09:35
  • @user51369 I've mentioned it above, using 'consulted' doesn't seem wrong to me. You're right, that since the dictionaries still do say that, it's better to use the present tense. – mikhailcazi Oct 27 '13 at 09:38
  • @user51369 It is a pleasure to be of help. But 'consulted' and 'have consulted' carry slight differences in meaning. 'I consulted' nearly always refers to a single instance of consultation. 'I have consulted' or 'I've consulted' suggests you have been looking into dictionaries concerning this over a period of time. – WS2 Oct 27 '13 at 11:17
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    All the dictionaries I consulted suggests that the process of consultation is over - it might have finished last year, last week, yesterday or this morning, but it is complete. All the dictionaries I have consulted implies that the consultation is continuing: not that I will necessarily look at another one, but that I am thinking of the process as continuing, perhaps with this very question. – Colin Fine Oct 27 '13 at 12:25
  • @ColinFine That is true. Perhaps I should have mentioned the differences in the answer. – mikhailcazi Oct 27 '13 at 14:25