Tenses in since-clauses

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Teo

#59390 Sun, 05 Dec 04 04:25 AM

1. He has been a boss ever since I have known him.
2. He has been a boss ever since I knew him.
Someone syas, "'Ever since I have known him' implies that he is still a boss; 'ever since I knew him' would imply that he is no longer a boss." Is that analysis correct?
Thank you very much for your reply.

Teo

Joined on Tue, Sep 28 2004

Taiwan

Contributing Member (1,631)

Thank you very much for your reply.

Tenses

CalifJim

#59395 Sun, 05 Dec 04 04:36 AM

Teo,
No, that analysis is not correct.
Only the first sentence makes sense.

Something that would come closer to implying that he was no longer a boss might be:

He used to be a boss when I knew him.

But even that doesn't mean he is definitely not a boss now.

Geeked [8-|]

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,794)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Tenses

Teo

#253626 Tue, 08 Aug 06 10:19 AM

1. He has been a boss ever since I have known him.
2. He has been a boss ever since I knew him.
3. He has been a boss ever since I have met him.
4. He has been a boss ever since I met him.

1 and 4 are correct. 2 and 3 are incorrect. Am I right?

Teo

Tenses

Maple

#253661 Tue, 08 Aug 06 01:07 PM

On the contrary, I like 2 & 4 for the reason that I'd like to take "since clause" as "since the time + when clause", and "since the time when" always introduces clauses whose verbs are in their past tenses.

Maple

Joined on Tue, Jul 11 2006

An ESL student in China

Contributing Member (1,110)

Verbs, Tenses, Clauses, Past Tenses

CalifJim

#253694 Tue, 08 Aug 06 03:39 PM

1 and 4 are correct. 2 and 3 are incorrect. Am I right?

I would say so, yes.

know is a stative verb, so ever since is going to mean during the entire time from when (I came to know him) until now.
meet is not a stative verb, so ever since is going to mean from the time when (I met him) until now.

It is the difference between the verb types that influences the choice of tense after ever since (or just since).

CJ