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Consider this example:

He said that he would have finished his task before we arrived.

Let's assign a number to each clause:

  1. He said
  2. that he would have finished his task
  3. before we arrive

If we want to show the time scheme for this sentence in the diagram below, each number would be corresponding to which letter?

enter image description here

LPH
  • 20,841
  • Check this out, maybe it already answers your question, or at least can help: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/21846/how-do-the-tens-es-and-as-pects-in-english-cor-re-spond-tem-po-ral-ly-to-one-an – Conrado Apr 13 '21 at 14:25
  • Personally, I think ...before we arrive** strongly implies *we haven't yet arrived* at time of utterance (time of reporting what he said, not the time when he actually said it - not that this makes any difference). If everything is in the past (perhaps we arrived last night, and we're talking the next morning about what he said long before that), it makes more sense to "backshift" to ...before we arrived.** – FumbleFingers Apr 13 '21 at 14:29
  • @FumbleFingers, Thanks, that was a typo. –  Apr 13 '21 at 14:43
  • @Conrado There's no mention of Future-Perfect-In-Past Tense in the question that you've refereed to. –  Apr 13 '21 at 14:46
  • @wiki ah, OK. I'll leave the link there anyhow, because it's related. Cheers! – Conrado Apr 13 '21 at 14:49

1 Answers1

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If you take the "future-in-the-past" meaning of the modal would (which is not its only meaning, but it is the most likely meaning here), then the saying is before the finishing, and according to his intention, the finishing is before the arriving. You cannot tell whether the finishing was actually before the arriving or not; and you cannot tell whether either the finishing or the arriving are in the past.

Like many uses of perfect contructions, the "have" is optional when the temporal relations are clear without it. He said he would finish his task before we arrived is nearly identical in meaning: the only difference is that your sentence sets the temporal focus to our arrival and looks back to his finishing, whereas the form without have doesn't set any particular temporal focus.

Colin Fine
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  • Thanks for clarification about the 'perfect aspect'; Would you please provide a link to a reference with more examples on what you've discussed in your first paragraph? –  Apr 13 '21 at 15:35
  • I'm not sure what you're asking about. – Colin Fine Apr 13 '21 at 17:37