How to use "Just now"? | just now tense
Itisnottruethat"justnow"mustalwaysaccompanyaverbinthepasttense,asitdoesinyourexample.ItmayALSOaccompanyverbsinthepresent,oreventhefuturetense(oritsperiphrasticalternatives).JustsearchtheBritishNationalCorpus[athttp://bnc.bl.uk/saraWeb.php?qy=just+now&mysubmit=Go]forplentyofattestedexamples.Theinterestingpart(=yourquestion)is:Howcanthatbe,if"past"meansbeforenowand"now"meansnow?Shouldn´tacontradictionarise?Thetrickisthepresenceofthehedge"just",whichsignalsthattheintervaloftimemediatingbetw...
It is not true that "just now" must always accompany a verb in the past tense, as it does in your example. It may ALSO accompany verbs in the present, or even the future tense (or its periphrastic alternatives). Just search the British National Corpus [at http://bnc.bl.uk/saraWeb.php?qy=just+now&mysubmit=Go] for plenty of attested examples. The interesting part (= your question) is: How can that be, if "past" means before now and "now" means now? Shouldn´t a contradiction arise? The trick is the presence of the hedge "just", which signals that the interval of time mediating between the event described and speech time is NEGLIGIBLE. Whether in absolute terms the event occurred a (negligible) bit EARLIER than speech time (as in your example) or will occur a (negligible) bit LATER than speech time does NOT matter in what concerns compatibility with "just now". (Of course, the verb will still be in the past, present, or future tense, respectively). However, interestingly, if the ver...