Monday, August 15, 2016

grammaticality - Use of "thus (far)" with past perfect



I am working overtime this week, and I have earned $200 extra thus far.
I was working overtime that week, and I had earned $200 extra thus far. (?)




Does the use of thus far require that the action is continuing to the present (i.e. Is it grammatical to use thus far with past perfect?)?



Answer



Well, let's look at the difference between the two sentences.



I'm working overtime this week, and I've earned $200 extra thus far.



The week is presumably not over yet, and already the speaker has earned $200 extra. Now let's imagine expressing this about last week or just any week in the past. The entire week is already over, so using a word that means "up to this point" is odd.


Instead, what you want to say is that there was a point last week (or some week in the past), by which you had earned $200 extra. So it becomes something like:




I was working overtime last/that week, and I had already earned $200 extra by Thursday.



"By Thursday" is just an example, any expression about a specific time would do. It could be derived from context too



John came to the restaurant last Thursday. I was working overtime, and I'd already earned $200 extra by then (or by that point).



Note that "thus far" has other meanings besides "up to this point" - the preceding explanation has to deal with your specific use case.


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