Last night, he smoked for the first time since April 2014.

[Marika33]

Is this a (grammatically) correct sentence in English? If not, how would you say this?

Last night, he smoked for the first time since April 2014.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes.

In this context, 'last night' is sufficiently close to the precise moment of utterance to be covered by the notion of 'now'.

 

[Marika33]

In this context, 'last night' is sufficiently close to the precise moment of utterance to be covered by the notion of 'now'.

But what if it happened not last night, but far earlier, for example, many months or years ago?

• On the 27th of July 2019, he did it (whatever "it" is) for the first time since 2008.

 

[emsr2d2]

That's OK too.