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Providing we have a couple of first-person simple sentences and would like to link them all using "and" conjunction word.

In such scenarios how would people decide which verb tense (along with pronoun) should be taken?

For instance, suppose we have got three simple present perfect sentences listed below.

We have investigated this issue.

We have found no problem there.

We will have a closer look later on in subsequent chapters.

And now we'd like to merge them all into one complex, linked sentence.

We have investigated this issue and [We have found / have found / found] no problem there as well as [We will have / will have] a closer look later on in subsequent chapters.

So, my questions would be:

  • Are we allowed to omit pronoun "We" in second, third, ... clauses?

  • In second clause, should we use "have found"? How about "found" alone?

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  • Minor nitpick: we will have is not present perfect but simple future.
    – Stephie
    Oct 22, 2015 at 18:44

1 Answer 1

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As long as the meaning is known, you can (and probably should) omit repeat pronouns in successive phrases joined by and, but, or or.

I would write your example as follows:

We investigated this issue and found no problem there. However, we will have a closer look later on in subsequent chapters.

Since "no problem" was found the investigation seems to be completed. There doesn't seem to be any direct connection to an action in the present time. So I would use the simple past tense.

As for the third phrase (We will have a closer look later on in subsequent chapters), the topic is not related, so I would make this a separate sentence. Since it seems to contradict the previous sentence (maybe the investigation was questionable), I would start this sentence with a word like however.

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    @abforce: You are kidding, of course, about "shortly"... Oct 22, 2015 at 20:30
  • @abforce Two pieces of advice, then. One, don't rush into accepting the answer, give it half-a-day or so. Second, if you have a question that seems to require another answer, ask a separate question and refer to this one in it. Oct 22, 2015 at 20:56
  • I wasn't trying to write a rule (tense usage is far more complex). But in my book, any action(s) completed in the past, with no connection to the present, do not need perfect tense.
    – user3169
    Oct 22, 2015 at 22:46

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