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Could you tell me if there is any difference in meaning between the following sentences?

Until now I didn't realize that you can sing so well.

Until now I hadn't realized that you can sing so well.

Are both sentences perfectly grammatically correct and natural? If no, could you explain why? If both perfecly natural and grammatical, then which one is more common?

Dmytro O'Hope
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  • Thanks for the comment, but my question isn't about reported speech at all. – Dmytro O'Hope Jan 12 '21 at 12:09
  • But the first example there is Barbara said she hadn't realised* it was midnight,* not *...didn't realise. Native speakers normally use Perfect forms rather than Simple Past with (do-support) when referring to a currently being negated* assertion about the past. In some contexts, Present Perfect is more natural (so we usually say *I have not done this before* rather than *I didn't do this before* when doing something for the first time). – FumbleFingers Jan 12 '21 at 12:14
  • I understand why in the first example Barbara said "she hadn't realized..." because it's part of reported speech as in "she said he hadn't realized it was midnight". But, what I wanted to know if both my examples are perfectly natural when they are not part of reported speech? – Dmytro O'Hope Jan 12 '21 at 12:21
  • Google Books "guesstimates" aren't very reliable for some search strings, but if after searching for the quoted string "Until now I didn't realize" you switch from Sorted by Relevance to Sorted by Date, you'll force the system to count the number of occurrences properly. If you scroll to Page 2 of the results you'll see there are only about a dozen in total (some not even relevant to our context). But do the same with "Until now I hadn't realized" and you'll see there are obviously far** more hits. – FumbleFingers Jan 12 '21 at 12:22
  • The most natural tense choice is a bit uncertain with verbs like *realise* in such "happening right now" contexts. One thing you'll normally only hear from non-native speakers is Until now I have not realised* this* (implication, I am realising it right now), but it's perfectly natural for the natives to say Until now I have not done* this* (implication, I am doing it right now). Go figure. – FumbleFingers Jan 12 '21 at 12:27
  • I got it! Thanks! I guess it very well may be that "until now I didn't realize" isn't standard grammar or it's just that it's less common but still perfectly natural for other native speakers of English. – Dmytro O'Hope Jan 12 '21 at 12:33
  • I wouldn't bother thinking about "grammar" in this context. All that really matters is that idiomatically most people stick with "backshifted Perfect" I hadn't noticed until now** rather than I haven't noticed / didn't notice* until now* even in the "Present" context. And for the Past context, it's almost always that same Past Perfect verb form: I hadn't* noticed until then* – FumbleFingers Jan 12 '21 at 12:44

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