Tham khảo tài liệu 'the grammar of the english verb phrase part 107', ngoại ngữ, ngữ pháp tiếng anh phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | I. Adverbial before-clauses 735 It was a long time before all the cases had been unpacked. These laws were then ratified although it was a long time before custom had obtained the vigor and effect of law. www The stockpiling of treatment began and it was a long time before enough had been stored. www The past perfect situations are obviously interpreted as t0-factual. If we want to do no more than represent the before-clause situation as not-yet-factual i. e. put emphasis on the fact that the unpacking was not yet a fact at the relevant situation time we have to use the conditional perfect usually in combination with the conditional tense in the head clause John looked at the cases in despair. It would still be a long time before all of them would have been unpacked. If the distance measured is not between the contextually given past orientation time and the end of the before-clause situation but between the orientation time and the beginning of the situation of the before-clause there are three possible tense combinations Bill looked at the clock in despair. It was three-thirty. The car carrying his rescuers had left Inverness at two so it was still at least an hour before they would arrive. Bill looked at the clock in despair. It was three-thirty. The car carrying his rescuers had left Inverness at two so it would still be at least an hour before they arrived. Arrived is a relative past tense form. Bill looked at the clock in despair. It was three-thirty. The car carrying his rescuers had left Inverness at two so it would still be at least an hour before they would arrive. indirect binding The following are some attested examples There were no problems with that but there was still like an hour before the boat would be leaving so we walked around a bit looked in the shops . www It was well into dark and Murphy had deduced that it would be still a few hours before someone in Four Corners was wise to Tanner s absence. www It would be still more years however before
