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I wouldn't have been able to meet him until I stayed there until 8:30 PM."

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tufguy

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I went to my my friend's house he wasn't there. He was going to come back after few minutes but I didn't have time to wait. It was already 8:00 PM. "I wouldn't have been able to meet him until I stayed there until 8:30 PM."

Could you please check my sentence?
 

GoesStation

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Review what you've been told about using few and about run-on sentences.
 

tufguy

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Review what you've been told about using few and about run-on sentences.

I went to my my friend's house. He wasn't there. He was going to come back after a few minutes but I didn't have time to wait. It was already 8:00 PM. "I wouldn't have been able to meet him until I stayed there until 8:30 PM."

Could you please check my sentence?
 

GoesStation

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I went to [strike]my[/strike] my friend's house. He wasn't there. He was going to come back after a few minutes but I didn't have time to wait. It was already 8:00 PM. [strike]"[/strike] (No quotation mark) I wouldn't have been able to meet him until I stayed there until 8:30 PM.[strike]"[/strike] (No quotation mark)

Could you please check my final sentence?
Thanks for correcting the question. Please remember the lessons you learned while doing so! Note that I removed the quotation marks around the sentence you're asking about. In this case, it's part of the narrative and doesn't need them. Just mark it somehow -- with bold case or underlining, for example -- or otherwise identify it ("my final sentence") when you want to ask about it.

Now for the sentence you're asking about. You've used one incorrect word; where you wrote until,​ you meant to use another word that begins the same way. Also, the second clause should be in the past perfect tense.
 
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tufguy

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Thanks for correcting the question. Please remember the lessons you learned while doing so! Note that I removed the quotation marks around the sentence you're asking about. In this case, it's part of the narrative and doesn't need them. Just mark it somehow -- with bold case or underlining, for example -- or otherwise identify it ("my final sentence") when you want to ask about it.

Now for the sentence you're asking about. You've used one incorrect word; where you wrote until,​ you meant to use another word that begins the same way. Also, the second clause should be in the past perfect tense.


I went to my my friend's house. He wasn't there. He was going to come back after a few minutes but I didn't have time to wait. It was already 8:00 PM. I wouldn't have been able to meet him unless I stayed there until 8:30 PM.

So I should say If I hadn't stayed there until 8:30 PM, I wouldn't have been able to meet him. Can we also say If I had stayed there until 8:30 PM then also I wouldn't have been able to meet him because he reached home at 9 PM?
 

GoesStation

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I went to my my friend's house. He wasn't there. He was going to come back after a few minutes but I didn't have time to wait. It was already 8:00 PM. I wouldn't have been able to meet him unless I had stayed there until 8:30 PM.

So I should say (1) "If I hadn't stayed there until 8:30 PM, I wouldn't have been able to meet him." Can we also say (2) "If I had stayed there until 8:30 PM then also I wouldn't have been able to meet him because he reached home at 9 PM"?
See above. You have to surround text that is the topic of a narrative, but not otherwise part of it, in quotation marks. Don't use quotation marks when you set the scene with the first part of a narrative and want to know whether the final sentence, which is part of the narrative, is correct.

I changed the last verb in your original sentence to the past perfect. With that change, the sentence is correct.

The sentence I labeled "(1)" is correct but it doesn't mean the same thing; it means that you did, in fact, stay until 8:30.

The sentence labeled "(2)" is incorrect. If you remove "also", it will be grammatically OK but overly wordy.

You don't have to repeat "AM" or "PM" when the narrative makes clear whether you're talking about morning or afternoon. Write one of those abbreviations once at the beginning.
 
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