the first time + present perfect (GiU Additional 1–18)
The frame
Section titled “The frame”B: No, it’s the first time I’ve been here. ✓
This/It is the first time + present perfect — experience up to now:
- It’s the first time I’ve been here / I’ve seen this / I’ve tried sushi
- This is the second time she’s called today
- It’s the last time I’m paying for everyone (present frame, near-future habit sense)
Why not the others
Section titled “Why not the others”| form | issue |
|---|---|
| I come | present simple = routine habit — “the first time” is about experience, not habit |
| I came | past simple — needs a past anchor: It was the first time I’d been |
| I’m | no progressive sense in this pattern |
Past frame mirror
Section titled “Past frame mirror”- Present: It is the first time I ’ve been here (present perfect)
- Past: It was the first time I ’d been there (past perfect)
Tense shift rule: the time-word frame (first time) takes the perfect — present perfect in present frame, past perfect in past frame.
Ordinals before a past event → past perfect
Section titled “Ordinals before a past event → past perfect”…asserting that this was the third time that he had been taken in.
This was the third time (that) … → the earlier occasions happened before that past moment → past perfect. Same machine as the present frame, shifted one step back:
| frame | tense after “the Nth time” |
|---|---|
| It is the first time … | present perfect (I’ve been) |
| It was the third time … | past perfect (he’d been / had been taken in) |
The was anchors the frame in the past; the counted occurrences must sit before it, so they take had + p.p. Common with: third time, second time, last time, only time.
Source
Section titled “Source”English Grammar in Use, Additional Exercises — Present and past (Units 1–18). Ebot lesson 2026-09-05.