Now vs Then

“Now” and “then” are two words which help a person differentiate between two different time lines or zones. The life, the events, the things happening in the past are considered as something happening back “then,” and things, events, life happening in the present are referred to as something happening right “now” as in the present tense.

“Now” and “then” can be used with many different tenses of the past and many different tenses of the present. These two words can be used for tenses like the simple past, present perfect, present perfect continuous, and simple present. Let’s review some examples: I used to play tennis twice a week when I was in Boston; now I play thrice a week since I started living in Atlanta. This sentence clearly expresses that after coming to Atlanta, I started playing tennis thrice a week. Back “then,” when I lived in Boston, I used to play tennis only twice a week. Similarly, In 2006, I lived in Boston. Since then, I have moved to Atlanta and have lived here for five years. This sentence expresses that back in 2006, I lived in Atlanta, but “now” for the past five years I have been living in Atlanta.

The usage of “now” and “then” helps people to use different tenses and try to understand the difference in time relationships. It usually helps in understanding the transition between two different time frames in a person’s life. “Now” tells about the life of a person as it is in the present day and has been for the past many years after some transition happened; whereas, “then” expresses the life of a person before some transition took place and is something which is a thing of the past.

Summary:

1.“Now” is used for the present tense. It is used usually with the present continuous, present perfect, and simple present tenses. For example, Now she lives in Atlanta. Now she has been living in Atlanta, etc. “Then” is used for the past tense like the simple past. It can also be used for the continuous past also. For example, Then she lived in Boston. Then she had been living in Boston.
2.“Now” and “then” are used to understand the different time frames and the relationship between these two different time frames in a person’s life. “Now” and “then” usually show the transition happening with a person from the past to a situation in the present. The time frame could be a group of many years, a few days, or even a very short period of time.

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