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Tuongvan Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Why until today used with past continuos?

Dear teachers,

As far as I know, until now/today often go with Present perfect or past perfect, but here it's past continuous. Could you possibly help clarify the meaning of past continuous used with until now here?

She said, " Until today, I was enjoying school in spite of the work"

She said, " Until now, everything was going so well."

Is there any difference beyween" Until today, I have been enjoying school in spite of the work " and " Until today, I was enjoying school in spite of the work"?

Thank you in advance
  

Top answer

Tuongvan Until today, I have been enjoying school in spite of the work You can't use present here. You need past perfect. Your sentence contradicts itself.

— Bokeh

  • Tuongvan Until today, I have been enjoying school in spite of the work You can't use present here.
  • You need past perfect.
  • Your sentence contradicts itself.
  • "I have been" is used for a current state; "until today" is used when the state is no longer current and requires the past perfect.
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21 Answers
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TuongvanUntil today, I have been enjoying school in spite of the work
You can't use present here. You need past perfect. Your sentence contradicts itself. "I have been" is used for a current state; "until today" is used when the state is no longer current and requires the past perfect.
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Tuongvan Is there any difference beyween" Until today, I have been enjoying school in spite of the work " and " Until today, I was enjoying school in spite of the work"?
present perfect continus vs. past continuous.

In your first example the enjoyment may still be continuing. In your second example, the implication is more strongly that the enjoym
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Hi Avangi,
These two sentences are in the novel "The one billion dollar girl". They are not mine:

Until today, I was enjoying school in spite of the work"
Until now, everything was going so well.

I find this use of tense her very strange. So I wonder whther it is correctly used or not.

By the way,I often see Present perfect used with Until now:

Until no
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Hi Tuongvan,
TuongvanUntil today, I was enjoying school in spite of the work"
Until now, everything was going so well.

I find this use of tense her very strange. So I wonder whther it is correctly used or not.
Those two sentences are okay. The continuous is used to express the duration. She had been enjoying school for a while, things had been going
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TuongvanUntil now, I have always lived here alone.(Now at this moment I still live alone)
In this sentence "until now" is redundant and adds confussion. It points to a change.
TuongvanI find this use of tense her very strange. So I wonder whther it is correctly used or not.
In English we often use the simple past as a subst
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Let's face it: "today" is present tense. There's not a heckovalotof difference between "today" and "now." If a condition has existed until this very moment, the chances are pretty good it will make it into the next moment. Of course in a narrative, it's a teaser. We assume there's a punch line coming. Where's the rest of the story??

Semantically, there's no difference between "until
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Yes, Grammar Geek,

The sentence" I have always lived here alone" is taken from the Advanced Oxford Dictionary
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TuongvanYes, Grammar Geek,

The sentence" I have always lived here alone" is taken from the Advanced Oxford Dictionary

I didn't question the part about "I have always lived here alone." To the contrary, I showed how it's used.

I questioned pairing it with "Until now."
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Yes, the whole sentence taken from Oxford Dictionary is" Until now I have always lived here alone"
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And the meaning given in that dictionary was to expres that it's always been true and it continues to be true?

I wouldn't use it tha way. Like Bokeh, I see a conflict. The "until now" indicates that something has changed.

In fact, if I read "Until now, I have..." I honestly wouldn't know if something had changed and now you don't do whatever it was, or if it's still the case,
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