Past tense and "now"

[Nezhul]

Hello, help me solve a dilemma. English is not my native language, so I sometimes find things that I'm not entirely sure about.

My question is - can you use the word "now" in a past tense narration?

Example:
He walked up to me and gave me a pay check. He never did this openly before, but now he seemed to be OK with this.

My dilemma is, if it's past tense, shouldn't it be the word "then"?

Also a question about the words like "yesterday" and "tomorrow". It's a past tense, first person narration. So it makes sense that "yesterday" is not actually the story yesterday, but our, real-world yesterday. Should I use the words "the day before", or yesterday is fine?

Example:
He walked up to me and gave me a pay check. He didn't have a chance to give it to me yesterday, so now was the time to do it.

My problem is that this kind of narration is like a person sitting in the chair nextt to you and telling you a story about things that happened in the past, right? But in this scenario the word "now" would be kind of referring to the moment when he talks about it, not the moment it happened. Or am I missing something?

Thanks in advance.

 

[tomlitilia]

He walked up to me and gave me a pay check. He never did this openly before, but now he seemed to be OK with this.

This works fine. You've put us (the readers) in the mind of the protagonist, even if it is in past tense.

He walked up to me and gave me a pay check. He didn't have a chance to give it to me yesterday, so now was the time to do it.

This doesn't work -- at least it rings strange in my ears. Changing it to "the day before" would work though. You might want to change the whole thing to "He hadn't had a chance to give it to me the day before, so now was the time to do it."
But I'm a fellow non-native, so you may want to take me with a grain of salt

 

[NotWise]

I don't have a problem with either of these examples.

He walked up to me and gave me a pay check. He never did this openly before, but now he seemed to be OK with this.

If you're uncomfortable using "now" in this context, then you can leave it out of this sentence without altering the meaning.

He walked up to me and gave me a pay check. He didn't have a chance to give it to me yesterday, so now was the time to do it.

Someone who knows more about formal grammar might be able to tell you more about this. Verb tenses in English are often mixed, even within a sentence. Your first sentence in the example is entirely in past tense. In the first independent clause of your second sentence "didn't" places things in the past and "yesterday" is in that time frame--even though "to give" is present tense. In the second clause "was" places things in the past and "now" is relative to that time frame although "to do" is in present tense.

 

[sr71plt]

You've put the passage in past context, so "now" is understood as "at that time."

That said, I've found "now" to be a word in my own writing that quite often can be dropped in review.

 

[SimonDoom]

In your first sentence, I think the use of "now" is fine, because it's very clear that "now" refers to the time that the action is happening, not when the story is being narrated. If you are going to be a stickler for grammar, however, you need to change "he never did this openly before" to "he never had done this openly before." It needs to be in the past perfect tense, not the past tense, because it conveys an action in past that happened before the main action that happened in the past.

In the second example, I agree with the other commentators that "the day before" is preferable to "yesterday", but once again you need to use the past perfect tense, not the past tense:

"He had not had a chance to give it to me the day before, so now was the time to do it."

You also could change "now" to "this", perhaps.

 

[sbrooks103x]

In your first sentence, I think the use of "now" is fine, because it's very clear that "now" refers to the time that the action is happening, not when the story is being narrated. If you are going to be a stickler for grammar, however, you need to change "he never did this openly before" to "he never had done this openly before." It needs to be in the past perfect tense, not the past tense, because it conveys an action in past that happened before the main action that happened in the past.

In the second example, I agree with the other commentators that "the day before" is preferable to "yesterday", but once again you need to use the past perfect tense, not the past tense:

"He had not had a chance to give it to me the day before, so now was the time to do it."

You also could change "now" to "this", perhaps.

The only thing I would change, ESPECIALLY if it's dialogue, is to say, "He hadn't had a chance..."
Contractions are your friend in dialog!

 

[Nezhul]

Those examples are just examples though. I was more interested in purely technical aspect of using "yesterday" and "now" and "tomorrow" in the past-tense narrations.
They are not the most perfect examples too, because I invented them on the fly. For instance, in the second example I would have used "the day before" as well, if it was something that I was writing. It just rolls of the tongue better that way. But I wanted to know if "yesterday" was acceptable in the past tense at all, and if it would be understood correctly.

Thank you all for answers, it clarifies things a little bit.

 

[sr71plt]

"now" seems OK in many contexts. I don't think I'd use "yesterday" or "tomorrow" in the narrative of something I'd couched in the past tense. It would be fine in dialogue.

 

[Nezhul]

OK, thanks for the input.