it had rained until you came

[ademoglu]

Hi,

*self-made*

1- Yesterday, it had rained until you came.
2- Yesterday, it had been raining until you came.
3- Yesterday, it had rained for three hours until you came.
4- Yesterday, it had been raining for three hours until you came.

I cannot distinguish which one/s are OK. I think sentence 2 and 4 are OK but I cannot make sure if the first and third ones are OK or not. If sentences 1 and 2 are OK, then is there any difference between them?

Thanks.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I consider all OK, but I am not a teacher.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Only #2 sounds acceptable to me.

Are the others ungrammatical or unnatural?

 

[Raymott]

I don't like any of them. If you changed 'until' to 'before' they would all work. It would be more natural to say "It was raining ..." in all cases, since both 'before' and 'until' establish the time sequence.
"Yesterday, it was raining before you arrived," or "Yesterday, it had been raining before you arrived." are better. The latter might be used if there is a greater time period between the rain stopping and the person arriving. But that's not a grammatical rule, just usage.

 

[Matthew Wai]

If you changed 'until' to 'before' they would all work.

Would their meanings be changed too?

 

[Raymott]

Would their meanings be changed too?

A little. But you could fix that by saying "just before", or by other means. It depends what's important.
"It was raining just before you came"; "It had been raining for three hours until just before you came"; "It only stopped raining when you arrived."