Had never been good before vs Has never been good before

Both phrases are correct, but they are used in different contexts. 'Had never been good before' is used in the past perfect tense to refer to a point in the past before another point in the past. 'Has never been good before' is used in the present perfect tense to refer to a point in time up to now. The choice between them depends on the tense you want to use.

Last updated: March 17, 2024 • 688 views

Had never been good before

This phrase is correct in the past perfect tense to refer to a point in the past before another point in the past.

This phrase is used to describe a situation that was not good at a specific point in the past, before another past event. It indicates a sequence of events in the past.

Examples:

She had never been good before she started practicing every day.
He had never been good before he took that course.
They had never been good before they hired a new manager.

Show examples from the web [+]

May 25, 2010 ... It had never been good before. But it was: it was good. Jesus, it downright tingled. Like pop-rocks. Bloody fucking pop-rocks before his braces ...
Jan 4, 2009 ... My aim had never been good before, but somehow, by some miracle, it hit him in the forehead. "Hey!" he shouted as he lost his balance and fell ...
Dec 1, 2014 ... Abbeywood and Filton High had never been good before." Mr Baker said news of the school's transformation had already begun to reach ...
world records have exceeded the previous ones by a great extent. During the development of throwing in. China, the achievement had never been good before .

Alternatives:

had never been good until then
had never been good previously
had never been good up to that point
had never been good in the past
had never been good in that period

Has never been good before

This phrase is correct in the present perfect tense to refer to a point in time up to now.

This phrase is used to describe a situation that has not been good up to the present moment. It indicates a continuous state from the past up to now.

Examples:

She has never been good before this competition.
He has never been good before this project.
They have never been good before this season.

Show examples from the web [+]

Nov 10, 1999 ... Fabiola Tafolla: The situation of diversity in higher education has never been good. Before Prop 209 and SP1 and SP2, diversity was already at ...
Triglycerides: 70. HDL: 43 ideal range is 40-60. This has never been good before ! LDLC: 115. My doc did a comprehensive metabolic panel:
Mar 27, 2013 ... That has never been good before. He walks back and tells me I am getting a warning. I signed and got on my way thinking WTF in my head.
Jun 17, 2014 ... Maybe this is a product of the fact that Valbuena has never been good before. After all, even with his 210 plate-appearance sample from this ...

Alternatives:

has never been good until now
has never been good up to this point
has never been good so far
has never been good until today
has never been good up to the present

What Our Customers Are Saying

Our customers love us! We have an average rating of 4.79 stars based on 283,125 votes.
Also check out our 2,100+ reviews on TrustPilot (4.9).

"Thank you!"
Sachi Nakama July 2024
"I have literally been through chat, PI, claude, bard and bing and I got conflicting answers! Thank you! Human intelligence reigns!"
Retha July 2024
"Faster than AI"
CYNTHIA December 2023
"This was very helpful and I personally think this site is the best."
Kaden October 2023
"It was extremely thorough and very helpful!"
imperialelisa October 2023
"7 years without any disappointment. Always 100% satisfied. You guys are the best in the world at what you do. Thank you so much :)"
Zubair Alam October 2023
"In a world of text messages and online communication, this is great to have as a live tool. Thank you."
Selena October 2023
"Without textranch I would be stuck!"
宏祐 October 2023
"Accuracy and fast response. Personal comments from editor. Thank you."
Clh September 2023
"I wasn't aware of this service, it's fascinating and more reliable than standard IA tools available on the internet"
Arturo September 2023
"The fact that you can get reliable fast feedback on your texts."
Vinicius Antonio August 2023
"you guys are better than grammarly i'm being honest here"
ordinary July 2023
"OMG! This is really good than any other text correction tools I've used so far. Highly recommend this."
Vehan July 2023
"Very fast and accurate. thank you."
mojtaba July 2023
"I love this app because it's help to writing skills all of students ♥️"
Tarisini July 2023
"This was exactly the mistake I was looking for, the wording dind´t sound right at first. Better than grammarly!"
Ente July 2023
"The immediate help that I received was reassuring and very satisfactory. Thanks."
priiiyanshuu July 2023
"this helps A LOT for my studies."
kathnunez02 June 2023
"Woow!! I would never have expected such precision! Thank you soooo much!!"
Berta June 2023
"Real Time Editor and not AI. Many Thanks."
Priya June 2023
"The very first thing excites me about Textranch is how much your editors care."
sepideh June 2023
"The fact that texts are checked by human editors rather than by AI, etc. I appreciate this!"
Анна June 2023
"Feel welcome, immediate response, high quality feedback"
martin.roy June 2023
"This is the best app that I have ever seen"
Burulai May 2023

Had never been good before vs Has never been good before