grammar

[jiang]

Dear teachers,

Please read the following sentence.

Before the group of specialists would give their opinion, they wanted to confer with one another.

My question is why do we need 'would'? As a grammatical rule in conditional clauses and clauses of time we don't use aux. So it should be ' Before the group of specialists gave their....'. I have spent much time consulting all my grammar books to find similar examples but I failed to find any. Could you please tell me if the usage of 'would' is correct or not?

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you in advance.

Have a nice weekend.

Jiang

 

[MikeNewYork]

Dear teachers,

Please read the following sentence.

Before the group of specialists would give their opinion, they wanted to confer with one another.

My question is why do we need 'would'? As a grammatical rule in conditional clauses and clauses of time we don't use aux. So it should be ' Before the group of specialists gave their....'. I have spent much time consulting all my grammar books to find similar examples but I failed to find any. Could you please tell me if the usage of 'would' is correct or not?

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you in advance.

Have a nice weekend.

Jiang

Yes this use of "would" is correct. It is not exactly a conditional construction, but the "would" here speaks of willingness. They were unwilling to give their opinion with consultation. Your rephrasing is also acceptable. In that case the "willingness" part is conveyed by the "wanted" in the second part.