Past Simple????

[asad hussain]

Can I say, “I have checked her purse, but found no knife.”? Actually I doubt the second clause whether it is correct to use the past simple with the present perfect.

[Humble]

Hi, Asad,
It looks OK to me. Found is also in Present Perfect, the auxiliary just needn't be repeated - it's one for checked and found.
Cheers

[Omar!]

Hello Humble :)
Do you mean it`s correct to be simple present .

thanks :)

[Humble]

It's
I have checked... I have found. There's no Present Simple here.

[asad hussain]

Thanks Humble. But you know what? the same thing came into my mind after posting the thread.

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by asad hussain

Can I say, “I have checked her purse, but found no knife.”? Actually I doubt the second clause whether it is correct to use the past simple with the present perfect.

IMO, it is the comma that has caused the confusion. It should not be there. As written, it separates two elements in a compound verb.

[riverkid]

Originally Posted by asad hussain

Can I say, “I have checked her purse, but found no knife.”? Actually I doubt the second clause whether it is correct to use the past simple with the present perfect.

It's okay to use the past simple with the present perfect, Asad. There's no way of knowing for SURE, comma or no comma, whether 'found' is past simple or present perfect. It could be either, but the nuance, I contend, is a bit different.

I've checked her purse, but I found no knife.

I've checked her purse but I didn't find any knife.

With these two, the implication could be drawn that the search is done.

I've checked her purse but I haven't found any knife.

Here the implication could be drawn that the search will continue though for an object as small as a purse, that seems decidely odd. My feeling is that 'found' is simple past tense.

[dihen]

Can I say "I've checked her purse but didn't find any knife.", omitting the second subject?

[Omar!]

Originally Posted by Humble

It's
I have checked... I have found. There's no Present Simple here.

oh, I`m sorry. I was hurrying when I wrote .
I meant is it correct to be simple past ?

thanks in advance :)

[riverkid]

Originally Posted by dihen

Can I say "I've checked her purse but didn't find any knife.", omitting the second subject?

There are many levels of English, Dihen and in casual English, dropping the 2nd subject would happen.