Clauses of Real Condition

Past Perfect + Past Continuous

STRUCTURAL PATTERNS

COMMENTARY

The official meeting had broken up for the session and I was drinking coffee...

In coordinated sentences the Past Perfect is often used in combination with the Past Continuous when both actions are viewed from the same moment, one action being completed while the other is still in progress. In Russian we find the combination of a perfective and an imperfective -verb.

His father had died and he was running the firm.

Его отец умер, и теперь он управлял фирмой.

The Past Perfect and the Past Continuous may be used in a sentence where there are homogeneous predicates. This pattern is in extensive use.

Enid had pushed the goods aside and was sitting on the counter, close to the window.

Энид отодвинула товары и сидела на прилавке у окна.

Note: The Past Indefinite is used to denote two successive actions which take place in the past.

Enid pushed the goods aside and sat down on the counter.

Энид отодвинула товары и села на прилавок.

"He can't be dead - unless something's happened to him in the last few weeks. "

Clauses of condition (real and unreal) are generally joined to the principal clause by means of the conjunction if.

Clauses of real condition may also be introduced by the conjunction unless. Clauses introduced by unless indicate the only factor or condition which may prevent the realization of the action of the principal clause. The most adequate way of rendering this conjunction in Russian is если только не.

He won't be told about it unless it is absolutely necessary.

Ему об этом не скажут, если только это не будет совершенно необходимо.

3. Sentences with a/fer-clauses (see the second part of the text on p. 240.)

It was her farm he ended up at after his plane had crashed.

In sentences with adverbial clauses introduced by the conjunction after, where both actions refer to the Past, the Past Perfect is found in the after-clause and the Past Indefinite - in. the principal clause.

After Gordon had talked to his father, he announced to Enid that they couldn't go to the seaside.

После того как Гордон поговорил с отцом, он объявил Энид, что они не смогут поехать к морю.

The Past Perfect is used in the after-clause with terminative as well as durative verbs. With terminative verbs, however, the Past Perfect may be replaced by the Past Indefinite.

Shortly after they returnad, Mrs. Packletide gave a lunch in her friend's honour.

Вскоре после того, как они вернулись из Индии, миссис Паклтайд дала завтрак в честь своей подруги.

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