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From the very first lesson, she already surprised my quite a lot by how quickly she could do simple addition problems. And later, she has never stopped surprising me by other, even more complicated, math problems.

Is "from the very first lesson" correct here? I mean, on one hand, the process of surprising is still lasting until today, so using "from" seems to be legitimate. However, it was exactly the simple addition problems that was the main source of surprise on the first lesson, while all the following reasons on all the following lessons were not addition.

However, if I say "On the very first lesson" (or "At the very first lesson"?), then can I still keep the word "already" in the first sentence ("On the very first lesson, she already surprised me quite a lot by...")?

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  • At the very first lesson she had already surprised me quite a lot by how quickly she could do simple addition problems. She has never stopped surprising me by other, even more complicated, math problems ever since.
    – SovereignSun
    Sep 14, 2018 at 6:32
  • @SovereignSun - Looks like a real answer to me. Why don't you post it as an answer?
    – brilliant
    Sep 14, 2018 at 7:22
  • Because it isn't an explanation and it's just what I would probably say.
    – SovereignSun
    Sep 14, 2018 at 7:34

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If you want to tell something from one point of time till now, use have/has been. It makes sentence pretty clear. However, you may need to change a structure or an order of the words.

She has been surprising me with her math skills from the very first session...

You may adjust the sentence the way you want. But, to answer, in such cases, use has been...

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  • But then it won't be what I want to say. What I want to say is that 1) she really surprised me on the very first day with her addition skills, and 2) that she's been surprising me with her other math skills since that time until now. The addition was covered only on that very first day, while all other lessons untill the present time have been covering other math skills, not the addition.
    – brilliant
    Sep 10, 2018 at 12:32
  • She surprised me with her 'addition skills' in math on the very first day, and the surprise has been continued for the other math skills even today.
    – Maulik V
    Sep 10, 2018 at 16:10
  • Thank you. This way it looks closer to what I want to say. Now, 1) can I use already in the first clause? ("...in math already on the very first day"); 2) can I use later in the second clause? ("and later the surprise has been..."); 3) can I still keep the girl as the subject in the second clause? ("and she has continued to surprise me with her other math skills..."); 4) can I still keep the negative construction? ("and she has never failed to surprise me... ");
    – brilliant
    Sep 10, 2018 at 19:11
  • 1) No, you cannot use 'already' unless she had surprised you before for something else. So, at least in the example I wrote, already may not work. 2) Yes. it could be like...and later..the surprise continued... But I still feel that 'then onward' is way better than 'later' here. 3) Yes, you can keep her again and again that way. 4) Yes, you can.
    – Maulik V
    Sep 14, 2018 at 7:56

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