I need your help with a few questions concerning the following sentence, please

Question

Hi there teachers,

I want to ask you a few questions concerning the following sentence, please.

- Honestely speaking, this is the first time I have tasted such a delicious dish. I had never tasted such a delicious dish before.

Why is the present perfect tense used here? Is it because one of the usages of present perfect is to talk about things that have occurred or finished just before or immediately before the time of speaking?

Is the sentence "I had never tasted such a delicious dish before" redundant, there? --Because If I say "This is the first time I have tasted...", I obviously mean that I had never done that before that time.

Thank you.

Hrsanei · Accepted Answer

No for your first question and Yes for the second question.
You are right, one of the usage of present perfect is the one you mentioned, however, the present perfect is used here because you are talking about experience to date. A good example for present perfect describing an action done recently can be

EX. I have just finished my dinner, I can't eat more.
Regards
Hamid

Laborious · Answer

Thanks, dear, for replying! But I've got a little confused here.

Supposing I'm at a friend's house and she is cooking something for me. And after it is ready, she asks me to taste that thing. When I taste that, she asks me how I found what she had cooked, and I say "Honestly speaking, this is the first time I have tasted such a delicious dish". So, in this situation, isn't the present perfect tense conveying that the action of my tasting the dish has just finished?

Thank you.

CalifJim · Answer

LaboriousHonestly speaking, this is the first time I have tasted such a delicious dish.

Here is the implication.

I have tasted dishes on various occasions (throughout my life until now).
[Nothing to do with just finishing. More to do with life history.]
Of all the dishes I have tasted, this one is more delicious than any of the others.

"this is the first time" is the same as "never until now" in meaning.

I have never (in my life) tasted such a delicious dish until now.

LaboriousI had never tasted such a delicious dish before

There's no good reason to use "had". It should be "have". This statement is just another way of saying the first statement, as already shown above. "before" is another way of saying "until now". It introduces the exception to "never" in either case.

I have never tasted such a delicious dish [before / until now].

In any case, the whole second sentence is redundant, just as you said, in the sense that it repeats what is said in the first sentence in different words.

CJ

Laborious · Answer

Thanks, teacher CJ. Thank you very much for that detailed explanation.

CalifJimI have never tasted such a delicious dish [before / until now].

That means If we use 'before' in that sentence or in a sentence that has the same structure as the above sentence has, then we can't use 'until now', and if we use 'until now', then we can't use 'before'. In other words, we can't have both, 'before' and 'until now', together in one sentence. Is this what you meant, teacher?

[I have a couple of more things, which I think are relevant to this thread, to ask, please. May I post them, please?]

Thank you.

CalifJim · Answer

LaboriousIn other words, we can't have both, 'before' and 'until now', together in one sentence.

Correct.

Laborious

Yes, but I may not be able to get to them until later.

CJ

Laborious · Answer

CalifJimYes, but I may not be able to get to them until later.

OK, teacher. And thanks, I'm not in a hurry.

Actually, I wanted to ask about the forms of tenses that could be used with "This is the first time..." and "This was the first time....".

Can we say "This is the first time I am doing X"? I think we can, and this would mean that the action is still ongoing or incomplete at the moment I say that. Am I right about what I have said, teacher?

And with "This was the first time", would it be correct to use a present tense, for example, present perfect or present continuous? Or should I use just a past tense?

Are following sentences all correct and/or natural, please?

1). This was the first time I did X.
2). This was the first time I was doing X.
3). This was the first time I had done X.

Is it better to use 'that' in place of 'this' in these examples or is it the same thing to use either?

Thank you.

CalifJim · Answer

LaboriousThis is the first time I am doing X.

This is OK, but the present and present continuous are unusual in this context. This was the first time present-oriented tenses is not OK. Just use That was ...+ a past-oriented tense, as shown below.

Laboriousbetter to use 'that' in place of 'this'

Yes. Those you wrote are all OK with "That", though I have to say that "This" is not wrong either.

1). That was the first time I did X.
2). That was the first time I was doing X.
3). That was the first time I had done X.

2) is quite unusual. I found only four examples of that pattern on fraze.it, and only one actually sounded all right to my ear:

I was thrilled because it was the first time I was writing in someone else's voice.

CJ

I need your help with a few questions concerning the following sentence, please

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