As you said or as you say?
As you mentioned or as you mention?
As he described or as he describes?
Which are correct?
If I understand correctly, the formers are correct.
Why use past tense here?
- As you said or as you say? > As you said
- As you mentioned or as you mention? > As you mentioned
- As he described or as he describes? > As he described
When you are constructing a sentence such as the above, you must always use the verb in the past tense form. This is because we are usually talking about an event that has already happened.
- As you said earlier, we should bring a packed lunch.
- As he mentioned earlier in his speech, we all need to vote.
However, if, for example, the person in question was still saying/mentioning/describing the thing, then you could use the present form or the present continuous form:
- As you are (currently) saying.
- As you are (currently) mentioning.
- As you are (currently) describing.
Furtherly, I feel that another situation in which it would be correct to use 'as you say' etc would be if you were talking about what someone does customarily. For example:
- Aluminium, or as you say aluminum, is a highly malleable metal. In this case we are comparing someone's accent or spelling to that of the person who is speaking.
-
1
-
upvoted. "As you say" can also refer to an idiom ("As they say in French, c'est la vie!) or, as was (at least) hinted at in this answer, a regular saying: "As the Queen says, 'We are not amused.'" – michael Apr 29 at 1:12
