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"I've been doing a lot of training in the past but it never was painful like it's now."

When I choose to use different sentence: It never hurt like it (does/is) now" then which auxiliary verb do I have to use? (does or is)

If the answer is does ("it never hurt like it does now") then how could it be that "does" and "now" combine together grammatically? (I know about exceptional verbs such "see" / "feel" etc.) Here when we are talking about "now", we are actually talking about present progressive (is/ are - auxiliary verbs) rather than present simple (do/does auxiliary verbs).

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  • "When I choose to use different sentence" should be changed to "When I choose to use a different sentence".
    – Jasper
    Commented Mar 26, 2017 at 6:14
  • @Jasper regarding to the I've been a lot of etc. it's a typo. I meant to say Iv'e been doing a lot of etc. Thank you for your attention. I corrected the mistakes.
    – Virtuous Legend
    Commented Mar 26, 2017 at 7:00
  • "Now" does not force a sentence to be in present progressive tense. "Now" is an adverb. It is grammatically correct to apply "now" to the verb "does".
    – Jasper
    Commented Mar 26, 2017 at 7:49
  • A made up dialog: Skeptic: "Why do you expect it to work? It never worked before!" Triumphant mechanic: "Well, it does now! I fixed it!"
    – Jasper
    Commented Mar 26, 2017 at 7:51
  • Then you can say "I come now"? That's new for me, because I always thought that now goes together with present progressive only (except of a few words such as see, like, feel etc. which anyway don't get present progressive)
    – Virtuous Legend
    Commented Mar 26, 2017 at 7:53

1 Answer 1

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Your first example can be restated as:

I've been through a lot of training in the past, but it never was painful like it is now.

Notice that the last two clauses use parallel verbs. One is past tense, and one is present tense, but both are conjugations of "to be".

it never was painful
like it is now.

Your second example is:

It never hurt like it does now.

Notice that the first clause can be expanded (using "do support") to:

It never did hurt

The parallel version of the second clause is therefore:

like it does now.

The following expansion of the first clause is grammatically correct, but has a different meaning:

It never was hurt

so the following parallel version of the second clause is also grammatically correct, but also not what you meant:

like it is now.

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  • Thank you for your answer. Anyway it's still difficult for me to understand how it could be "does now", here is when we are talking about "now" we actually talking about present progressive (is/ are - auxiliary verbs) rather than present simple (do/does auxiliary verbs)
    – Virtuous Legend
    Commented Mar 26, 2017 at 7:07
  • The present progressive of "hurt" is "is hurting", not "is hurt". "is hurt" is closer to a perfect construction, or a complement using a past participle, or a complement using an adjective. As my answer suggests, "like it is hurt now" is grammatically correct. Unfortunately, its meaning is closer to "recently damaged", not "causing pain right now".
    – Jasper
    Commented Mar 26, 2017 at 7:35
  • "like it hurts right now" is in the simple present tense. With "do support", it becomes "like it does hurt right now". Both versions imply you can feel pain from it right now. The "right now" is consistent with the present tense. It is redundant, in an emphatic way.
    – Jasper
    Commented Mar 26, 2017 at 7:38
  • Thank you. If you expend your explanation regarding to "Unfortunately, its meaning is closer to "recently damaged", not "causing pain right now" it will be great, because I didn't get this point.
    – Virtuous Legend
    Commented Mar 26, 2017 at 7:56

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