In Past simple^x, Clauses^x

In formal writing pepole use past simple tense.But i have seen many times books and other articles includes sentenceswhich have been made of "would"...I know that "would" is used in conditional clauses.Where as i realy want to know what are the situations where i can use...

She passed away in the past, so use the past simple.However, remember that when you use since or from, you need to use the present perfect in the independent clause.(has taught or has been teaching if it is incomplete)

This situation is indeed similar to the one discussed. Good point. Strictly speaking, the past perfect tense need not have been used in the "clouds" clause. It was likely used to show that the coming of clouds preceded the rain -- which is only logical, of course.So the past perfect...

OK, this I got. But I still don't understand why the second clause ("...clouds had joined...") must(?) be written in the Past Perfect. Before I had written a couple of lines someone called (Past Simple) me — Before they had finished breakfast the clouds joined (Past Simle) into...

written a couple of lines someone calls me". Your sentence is a backshifted version of this.

Am I right that "came down" can be replaced by "had began" producing a sentence consisting of three Past Perfect clauses? «Before they had finished breakfast the clouds had joined into an unbroken roof and a straight grey rain had began"» I have seen usages like:...

Your time line is correct. The last clause is probably in the past simple because raining is non-eventive (i.e. imperfective). had come down would have implied that the entire "rain-event" had already finished before breakfast, but in fact it was still raining during breakfast.CJ

Hello all! In spite a chronical lack of time, I have managed to spare some of it to continue the reading of "The Lord of the Rings", so here're is my new question: "Before they had finished breakfast the clouds had joined into an unbroken roof and a straight grey rain came...

Hi,This is part of what Roger Woodham said when responding to a question. This is from BBC Learning English about mixed conditionals. Roger Woodham said this in her response to a question:mixed second / third conditional The other possibility, though I think this is less common, is when we have...

Hi,During this period I worked in several companies where I've gathered a broad knowledge base in the web design field."I see the writer as doing two things in this sentence.1. Stating past historical information. (I worked . . )2. Indicating that past activity has relevance to the...