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I always struggle with "I knew" sentences, because I'm completely incapable of understanding what tense should follow it. For example

I knew I have never been your enemy.

or

I knew I had never been your enemy.

In a situation where I'm still not this person's enemy, which tense should I use? Present perfect or past perfect?

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  • You can put the I knew part aside and just think about whether you had been or have been enemies. Then add I knew before that. – Yosef Baskin Feb 15 '17 at 16:59
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It should be I knew I had never been your enemy, or even just I knew I wasn't ever your enemy. If you were using present tense, you'd say I know I have never been your enemy.

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