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Which sentence is correct?

She didn't show up in the day before yesterday and today.
She doesn't show up in the day before yesterday and today.

What tense should be used in this case? If it's "yesterday and today", I can use "she hasn't shown up from yesterday". I use "the day before yesterday and today" to make the time more distinct, and for that implying that yesterday she did show up.

I am aware that none of the example may not make sense. If so, do you have any better choice?

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    Neither of your sentences make much sense in English, regardless of the tense of the auxiliary "do". (There is no English verb to valid.)
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Commented Jul 10, 2017 at 18:40
  • Is this what you're trying to say: Apart from yesterday, she hasn't shown up since two days before yesterday.?
    – user3395
    Commented Jul 10, 2017 at 18:40
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    @userr2684291 "..since two days..." is not idiomatic. We don't use since in this sense. "She hasn't shown up in the two days since yesterday" is how we might phrase it, but it's still very awkward.
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Commented Jul 10, 2017 at 18:47
  • @P.E.Dant Thank you. How about Since the day before the day before yesterday?
    – user3395
    Commented Jul 10, 2017 at 18:53
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    @userr2684291 Rather than twist ourselves into a syntactic knot, we just say "in the last N days". We might say "the day before yesterday", but never "the day before the day before the day before..." and so forth.
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Commented Jul 10, 2017 at 18:57

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The problem here is more logical than linguistic. "Showing up" is a state and not an ongoing action -- you can either show up or not show up, but you can't "be showing up", so in most cases you use the past or the future tense:

She didn't show up yesterday or today, and she probably will not show up tomorrow.

She hasn't shown up yet, but I think she may show up before nightfall.

She hadn't shown up before supper was ready, but they decided to wait a little longer for her in case she did show up.

As with other verbs, you can use the simple present to describe a regular occurrence:

She normally shows up by this time, but today she's late.

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  • So you use "yesterday or today", and the verb goes with the first word, is that correct?
    – Ooker
    Commented Jul 11, 2017 at 4:30
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    @Ooker yes, more or less. Actually the verb goes with the context. I can say for example, "Yesterday I heard that she will show up in a couple of weeks." But in this English is no different from any other language, yes?
    – Andrew
    Commented Jul 11, 2017 at 5:10
  • yes it's no different from Vietnamese. But I remember in passive voice, the verb in the main sentence ("will show up") should goes with the verb of the speaker ("heard"), so it should be changed to "would", shouldn't it?
    – Ooker
    Commented Jul 11, 2017 at 7:54

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