How do you use 'says' and 'said'
1.Stern says the public service campaign encourages people to help change that statistic....(why don't use 'said', she said this before the news published.)
2.Gates said a preliminary assessment indicates were not seriously damaged. Gates says the military which has enormous assets in the Pacific, is ready to assets in rescue and recovery efforts.(there are in the same paragraph why use different tense?)

Question

How do you use 'says' and 'said'
1.Stern says the public service campaign encourages people to help change that statistic....(why don't use 'said', she said this before the news published.)
2.Gates said a preliminary assessment indicates  were not seriously damaged. Gates says the military which has enormous assets in the Pacific, is ready to assets in rescue and recovery efforts.(there are in the same paragraph why use different tense?)

Answer

Present:

I am saying... / You are saying... / He is saying... / Miss is saying...

Past:

I said... / You said... / He said... / Miss said...

Future:

I will say... / You will say... / He will say... / Miss will say...

Habitual:

I say... / You say... / He says... / Miss says...

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So the choice between "says" and "said" is the choice between habitual and past tense. We use a habitual sentence for things we do in the past and will probably continue to do in the future. Note we must have done this more than once already. The past tense sentence just expresses that the verb was done, but this may be only once and things may have changed now (for example opinions).

For example:

I say that Chinese is not that difficult to learn.
[I say this often and will continue to say this! - habitual]

I said that Chinese is difficult.
[Maybe I said this once or many times and maybe I have changed my mind since! - past]

Answer

say for present tense , if said for past tense

Answer

Thank you so much for your answer. It really helpful. I understand now.

Answer

Sorry: We use 'said' when we report speech: 'Yesterday, my friend said "I love you."'

Answer

Hi there 'says' is present tense and 'said' is past tense. Often when discussing someone's written ideas we use 'says'. For instance, 'Marx says that capitalism is oppression.' We use says when we report speech: 'Yesterday, my friend said "I love you."'

Answers · 7

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