By the time

Question

'By the time he had finished, it was time for bed.'why wrong  this sentenceand thank you

Clive · Accepted Answer

It's not wrong.

Anonymous · Answer

CliveIt's not wrong.

but I can not use past perfect after by the time only simple past.what is meaning of this sentense?explain me please

Clive · Answer

but I can not use past perfect after by the time only simple past.what is meaning of this sentense?

You can use both tenses. The meaning here is the same.

Clive

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousI can not use past perfect after by the time

Where are you getting these rules from?

That's not correct.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

I can use past perfect where I want!by the time means after or before in this sentense?

Clive · Answer

First he finished.
Then it was time for bed.

Clive

CalifJim · Answer

Anonymousby the time means after or before in this sentence?

The meaning of "by the time" is similar to "before". Not "after".
It doesn't matter which sentence it's in.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

so,by the time he had finished his homework, it was time for bed=before he had finished his homework, it was time for bed.
by the time I had gone to school, I brushed my teeth=before I had gone to school, I brushed my teeth.
does this mean=I went to school.then I brushed my teeth.
this is another problem to me.past perfect after before?why then use past perfect?before can give the order.

please please thank you and I don't want to give you bother. forgive me.

CalifJim · Answer

Anonymousby the time he had finished his homework, it was time for bed=before he had finished his homework, it was time for bed

No. Those are not equal. "by the time" is similar to "before" in most cases, but it does not have the exact same meaning because it also applies to cases where both things happen at the same time or at nearly the same time.

By the time he had finished his homework, it was time for bed suggests a scenario like this:

He was trying to finish his homework so that he would have time to do something else that was more interesting before it was time for bed, but just at the time he finished his homework, he looked at the clock and found that he had failed in his race against the clock. There was no more time to do anything more interesting. It was already time for bed.

In this case, finishing the homework may be considered simultaneous with bedtime, not before and not after.

If you say Before he had finished his homework, it was time for bed, it suggests that bedtime came before the finishing of the homework. He never finished the homework that night because it was still unfinished when he went to bed.

The past perfect can be used in a before-clause to show that the action mentioned in the before-clause was not completed. This combination implies the negation of the action in the before-clause. See

CJ

By the time

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