Tense Rules – Using ‘It’s Not the First Time’ Correctly

In situation 1, which version you select (they're both grammatically correct) depends on the tense in which you're telling the story. If you're telling the story in the present tense ("So I'm walking along the street..."), you would use option A to match, while if you're telling it in the past tense ("So I was walking along the street..."), you'd use option B.

In situation 2, you'll generally want either A or C.

The essence of the grammar article was probably that in English, it's possible to discuss either past events or hypothetical future events in the present tense, as if you were placing yourself in the time and narrating from that perspective. In this case, you'd use the present-tense "first time I've been", but it's much more common to narrate this way when relating past events than when talking about future plans.

Not sure what the grammatical name for this is, but the correct answer is the simple past tense of the verb:

• It's time you went to bed.
• It's time you got a haircut.

This might be considered a slightly pedantic construct. Most native speakers of English would probably be more inclined to say:

• It's time for you to go to bed.
• It's time for you to get a haircut.