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I would like to know if the present perfect construction can be used in the two following sentences that employ the adverb earlier:

  1. As I have said earlier, I don't like her at all.

  2. I have been to your place earlier, but I didn't see anything.

tchrist
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Chien Te Lu
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  • I see no problem with it—although I would use but I haven't seen* anything* in the last part of your second sentence. – Jason Bassford Jun 30 '19 at 16:25
  • I have seen people claim that "earlier" can only be used with simple past tense, as it refers to a specific time point in the past. On the other hand, previously can be used with both simple past and present perfect tense, and I do not know what makes the difference. – Chien Te Lu Jun 30 '19 at 23:49
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    Anybody making that claim is wrong. – Jason Bassford Jul 01 '19 at 03:51
  • You could also use past tense for both verbs: I went to your place earlier, but i didn't see anything. Generally, it's not a good idea to change tenses when the verbs are parallel and there's no semantic reason to. – Peter Shor Aug 07 '19 at 10:20
  • The appointment is earlier than I care for. – Hot Licks Aug 21 '20 at 00:36
  • Likewise: Your arrivals have been getting earlier and earlier. It's likely that in some types of sentences, earlier is normally used with the simple past tense, but that is far from the only use of earlier. – Stuart F Dec 15 '21 at 21:04
  • Perfect constructions are appropriate for some situations, but in cases where a simple case is also OK, the simpler the better. At the very least, not using a perfect loses an auxiliary verb that'll probly get lost, contracted, or confused with some form of be or would, thereby raising the likelihood of preventable error. – John Lawler Mar 11 '23 at 18:17

2 Answers2

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The problem with using a perfective construction in those sentences isn’t the word earlier. It’s that we would not normally say either of those in that fashion.

Rather, formulations like these are more natural:

  1. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t like her at all.
  2. I went to your place earlier today but didn’t see anything.

It sounds to me like you’ve been being taught guidelines about when you should use perfective constructions that don’t mesh with how native speakers actually speak. If you replace earlier with other temporal expressions, nothing changes:

  1. As I mentioned yesterday, I don’t like her at all.
  2. I went to your place yesterday but didn’t see anything.

If you really want a perfect form in the beginning, these work but mean something completely different:

  1. As I have mentioned repeatedly, I don’t like her at all.
  2. I’ve been to your place before, but I’ve never seen anything.

The last one doesn’t have to be overly perfective:

  1. I’ve been at your place before, but I never saw anything.
  2. I’ve been to your place before but never saw anything.
  3. I’ve gone to your place before, but I never saw anything.
  4. I’ve gone to your place before but never saw anything.
tchrist
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We can use

1.'As I have said earlier, I don't like her at all.' or

'As I said earlier, I don't like her at all.'

  1. 'I have been to your place earlier, but I haven't seen anything.' or

'I went to your place earlier, but I didn't see anything.'

If we use 'before' -

'As I have said before, I don't like her at all.'

'I have been to your place before, but I haven't seen anything.' or

'I had been to your place before, but I didn't see anything.'

We can use the present perfect or the past perfect with 'before''.

Mohammad Farukh Ahmad
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