How can I express the past condition

[MOYEEA LEE]

It doesn't. I told you that one modal/tensed form does not 'mean' another.The students who graduated graduated. The students who didn't, didn't. Some graduated, some did not. Those who did went on to work in the factory.

So in this way:
Students who graduated after the exam would work in that factory.

It still means students graduated already and they would work in that factory, right?But in the sentence " I hoped they were doing their homework" it can still mean later they would be doing their homework, right?

But we didn't know if they did because the word " hoped" .
Am I right?

 

[MOYEEA LEE]

It doesn't mean that. It refers to a past habitual action. In the past, every time it rained, I chose to stay indoors.

But sometimes it is not a past habitual action.

Like: I didn't know where he is. If he came, I would tell you.

 

[MOYEEA LEE]

We don't know for certain that any of them graduated.

You are yet again trying to use one tense/aspect modal form to paraphrase another. You can't do that. All we can say for certain is that at the past time the speaker is talking about, the speaker's thought was "I hope they are doing their homework. Depending on the context and co-tett, the hope might be for something happening at the time of hoping, or for something happening after that time.

But why we need to say:

The train had left before we arrived.

Instead of saying:

The train left before we arrived.(In this case, "before we arrived" means an action happened in the past, it can't mean "would arrive",right?)

You can say:The train left before we were going to arrive.(Then the meaning became different)

Thanks a lot!

 

[Rover_KE]

I am closing this thread now, MOYEEA LEE.

If we have not answered your questions satisfactorily you can always ask them again in WRforums, in which I see you have enrolled.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I wish you would let me say one more thing before closing it.

But why we need to say:

The train had left before we arrived.

Instead of saying:

The train left before we arrived.

The past perfect is optional because the time marker 'before' has already established the sequence.