until now+ present perfect

Are you sure it was a British newspaper? Defense is an American spelling. I see nothing wrong with using until now with had been considered.
CB

Thank you Cool Breeze,but could you please explain why"the past perfect"is used here, whynot"presnt perfect"?I know this sentence cannot be wrong because it was written by a native speakers' newspaper.Another sentence from the U.S TIMES:

The American Heart Association had until now listed obesity as a contributing factor to heart disease

Again, why not"....has until now l

This is pretty advanced usage of the perfect aspect.  Unfortunately there are so many ifs and buts about tenses that it takes several chapters in a book to go through them all in detail.  The difference in meaning is slight.  'Had been' suggests that it is completed; in other words, it is no longer true.  'Has been' tells us only about up until now; it tells us nothing about the future.  "Has bee

Hi,

I think the perfect aspect use of the original example by the original poster is in the similar vein as I think is this mixed conditional use. I think the past perfect part here indicates what is hypothetical in the past, but similar in the overall working/concept. As you said, a present perfect is (can be) used to denote what is no longer true, but the use of past perfect is what is

Hi Richard_s ,
If so,can I say as below?:

I have been friendly to him until now( to I mean I am still friendly to him now)
I had been friendly to him until now (to mean I was friendly to him in the past and I am no longer friendly to him now)

Could you possibly tell me whether these two sentences are correct and sound natural to native speakers? If not, please help me u

Anonymous1. I would give you some money had I had some money. -- I think this is very similar in concept to what you were saying about something no longer being true.

That's a hypothesis of the past. What's posted above, on the other hand, is not. It is indicative. It tells us that the West Country used to be considered low risk [by someone] but now it is con

This is pretty much correct. The second sentence is definitely fine. Actually, the 'until now' is redundant in the first sentence.  Also, it might be more natural to use the perfect continuous in this sentence.  Perfect continuous is used to show that an action continues until now, except with stative verbs and reporting verbs (such as 'consider' which was used in the original sentence).  The pre

richard_sit might be more natural to use the perfect continuous in this sentence.

Could you post an example of that.

TuongvanMy grammar book says the present perfect is used with "Until now", but why do they use the past perfect in the following sentence that I have picked up from a British newspaper

I would take that "now" to mean "just now", which would then be a point in the past.

KooyeenI would take that "now" to mean "just now", which would then be a point in the past.

Same here. There is certainly some wiggle room as to exactly when now is. This turn of phrase is common when a new procedure or a new way of thinking has come into effect just recently. A change of mind may be involved. So the past perfect in these cases is