until + past perfect

Hela · Post by **Hela** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 4:04 am

Dear Teacher,

Could you please tell me which of the sentences is wrong and why ?

1) He had not wanted to come until they had built the motorway.

2) He had not wanted to come until they built the motorway.

Is it true that the fact of having 2 different subjects can influence the tense of the subordinate clause?

Thanks a lot,
Hela

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 4:29 am

Actually, both are possible, but with rather different meanings. In the first, the building of the motorway is treated hypothetically: that is, we do not know whether it actually ever was built. It is equivalent to saying '...until such time as the motorway was built'.

In the second, however, the building of the motorway is predicated as an actual past event, after which (presumably) he changed his mind and did want to come.

There is no connection between the choice of tenses and the number of subjects.