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The last time John had sushi was three years ago. He and his friends go to a Japanese restaurant, and he orders some. After finishing his meal, he posts a story on Instagram: a picture of the sushi he ordered, accompanied by the following text:

I hadn't/haven't eaten sushi for three years, but now my friends and I are at a Japanese restaurant and I've just had some. It was delicious.

Which tense would be correct in this case: the present perfect "I haven't eaten" or the past perfect "I hadn't eaten"? Thanks.

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    Context is everything. The two possibilities are 1) I haven't eaten sushi for three years, but now my friends and I are at... 2) I hadn't eaten sushi for three years, but now my friends and I were at...
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 24 at 18:22
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    Does this answer your question? Canonical Post #2: What is the perfect, and how should I use it?
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 24 at 18:27
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    The very simplest answer is: I see no reason in this example that "haven't" won't do. John is still close enough in time and situation to the sushi that it counts as "generally the present" for him. The next day, for example, it wouldn't make as much sense.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Jun 24 at 18:31

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If he finished a full sushi meal a minute ago, and before that bit of sushi his most recent sushi meal was three years earlier, he could say:

I hadn't eaten sushi for three years. But I've just had a sushi meal. It was delicious.

But he could also say "haven't eaten" and the rest of his remark would clarify.

In natural language contexts English speakers do not experience meltdown or system failure when the optimal tense is not chosen by the speaker. There's a good deal of "slop" or "tolerance" built into the system -- like the proverbial distinction between a Japanese luxury car and a German luxury car. German cars are supposedly engineered to more exacting tolerances but require more maintenance to keep them in tune.

If the speaker had said "haven't eaten" moments after he'd finished a meal, he could be describing the three-year-sushi-abstinence-context for the meal just finished when creating his Instagram "documentary" of the meal.

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