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Topic : Re: the use of "now" in past tense I want to write something like Now that he met his lost daughter, his happiness is now complete. But I'm not sure how to turn that into narrative past - selfpublishingguru.com

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This is how I would write it:

Since meeting his lost daughter, his happiness was complete.

Why? Well, since you ask, I'll explain: you are referring to something that has already happened (in the past, thus written in the past tense).

Huh? The words now and is are literally referring to something that is currently happening, not something that has happened, hence why you cannot use them to successfully describe or refer to something that has already happened / occurred in the past.

You could also write (courtesy of Joel Bosveld):

Having met* his lost daughter, his happiness was complete.

UPDATE:

The user "what" is correct - one can indeed use the word "now" in the past tense. I should point out that I was not stating that this could not be done (perhaps what would like to consider the -1!). In such an instance, I would use it like this:

Now that he had finally met his lost daughter, his happiness was restored.


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