Learn English – Already in all tenses

grammaticality

Can "already" be used in other tenses?

For examples:

Is it possible if I use "already" in all progressive tenses?

E.g.

He is already flying his plane

He was already flying his plane.

He will already flying his plane.

and I'm not sure that it can be used like those,

E.g.

I would have already played it (or) I will have already played it.

So, when can I use "already"?

Best Answer

Already may be used in any non-negative context, with any verb construction, simple, progressive, or perfect, with any time reference: it designates the time you are speaking about (technically, Reference Time).

He's already flying his plane.
He had already flown his plane.
At 6 pm he will already have been flying his plane for two hours.

In negative contexts, however, it is replaced with yet, unless you are explicitly contradicting a prior assertion with already.

He is not yet flying his plane or He is not flying his plane yet.
but
What do you mean, he's already flying his plane? He's not already flying his planeā€”he hasn't even left the hangar!

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