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suppose, I played football in my childhood. in 2016, I am sharing my that experience with my friends like this way

I have played football but I have not been able to play since I have been affected by arthritis.

my explanation: I have played football- I am sharing my experience without mentioning time. therefore I use present perfect. I have not been able to play - I cannot remember when I have stopped playing and I am still not able to play. therefore that past event is related with my present situatuion. hence I use present perfect. since I have been affected by arthritice- I still have arthrice and I don't know the time when I have been affected.

please help me to understand whether I am using right tenses to express a past event.

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  • Your question is not clear. Kindly be specific in your query please.
    – Monzoor
    Commented Dec 31, 2016 at 16:50
  • monzoor. thanks. I am trying to find out whether I am using the right tense to describe a past event. I have also wrote why I am using a particular tense in my explanation
    – Kazi Abdul Mohite
    Commented Dec 31, 2016 at 16:59
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    'I have played football, but I have not been able to play since being affected by arthritis.' is better, but emphasises the fact that 'I' have played football. 'I used to play football, but I have not been able to play since being affected by arthritis.' is unmarked. I don't like either "since I was affected ...' or 'since I have been affected ...'; the deleted form removes the 'Is this an inchoative or a stative usage of 'affect'?'
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Dec 31, 2016 at 17:01
  • @Edwin: In almost all natural conversational contexts, apart from your "device" to avoid the third repetition of have, you'd probably also underscore the difference between the remaining two by contracting the "less significant" second occurrence... I have played football, but I haven't been able to play since [going blind, whatever].
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 31, 2016 at 17:10
  • @edwin "since being affected by arthritis " is this a participle clause?
    – Kazi Abdul Mohite
    Commented Dec 31, 2016 at 17:16

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I have played football but I have not been able to play since I have been affected by arthritis.

You should use past tense for the first part of your sentence because it happened in the past. In the past you played football, but now you can not play it.

But, the second part of your sentence connects with present. You have still not been able to play because you affected by arthritis.

I played football but now I have not been able to play since I was affected by arthritis.

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