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Let's say you went to an English-speaking country, such as in the U.S.A. for work. You are born and raised in a non-English speaking nation for example in an asian country. And then, after several years, you've decided to visit your home country, and your friend just gave a comment on your native-sounding English speaking skills, where in fact you already had that BEFORE going to the U.S.A. So, making your reaction into a sentence, it goes like:

This is already the level of my speaking skills before I got there in the U.S.A. for work.

The bold letters are(above), I think, a bit off. Because I'm not sure what verb tenses should I use here in this particular situation. Another alternative is:

I've already had this level of speaking skills before I got there in the U.K. for work. (I'm more confident on this to be correct.)

Help.

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You are making it a little more complicated than it needs to be. These sentences are perfectly understandable:

I already had this level of speaking skill before I even got to the U.S.

I already spoke this level of English before I went to live in the U.S.

Because you use already and before, it is very clear that the speaking of a certain level of English happened before moving to the United States. Therefore, it's fine just to use the past tense in both.

However, if you really want to use different tenses, you can use the past-perfect tense in the first expression and the perfect tense in the second.

I had spoken this level of English before I even arrived in the U.S.

You can also use past perfect progressive, because speaking was an action that occurred over a period of time:

I had been speaking this level of English before I even arrived in the U.S.

Finally, it is acceptable to use past perfect progressive with past perfect:

I had been speaking this level of English before I had arrived in the US.

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  • Thx, anyway, the key thing here is that it's a good decision I've posted this question, as there are many ways to say what I am trying to say.
    – John Arvin
    Dec 26, 2018 at 8:34
  • Oh, one thing, I believe your "U.S." is incorrect. U.S. is an adjective, whereas U.S.A is the country
    – John Arvin
    Dec 26, 2018 at 8:37
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    Hi John, you're welcome. Most people in the U.S.A. call it just "U.S." This might be different in other parts of the world.
    – Ringo
    Dec 26, 2018 at 18:24
  • dictionary.com/e/is-usa-a-noun
    – ReinstateMonica3167040
    May 13, 2019 at 0:58

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