conjunction + past simple – English Grammar Profiler

In the English Grammar Profile, there are two points that overlap.  B2 point 55 is defined as:

PAST simple after ‘if’ as a politeness structure, especially in letters and emails.

B2 point 72 is defined as:

the past simple with a range of subordinating conjunctions, including ‘as soon as’, ‘before’, ‘if’, ‘once’, ‘since’, ‘so’, ‘until’, ‘when’, ‘while’

For example:

Can anyone guess what this building was used for a hundred years ago, 

before you went to school here, before I went to this school even?

listen

All the examples given in the EGP for point 55 follow the structure:

would  be (_rg) _JJ _CS * _VVD

A search in COCA:

1 WOULD BE GREAT IF YOU SUBSCRIBED 12
2 WOULD BE GOOD IF WE TALKED 6

Sadly, iWeb corpus software does not allow the above search because it is too wide for their software.  Searching for collocates to the right of the first half is equally useless.

The best we can do is limited regardless which shows just how rare this structure is: _jj _cs * _vvd

1 SURE IF I WANTED 381 2 SORRY IF I MISSED 373 3 SORRY IF I OFFENDED 361 4 SURE IF I GOT 266 5 SORRY IF I CAME 252 6 SURE IF YOU GOT 139 7 SURE IF YOU SAW 126 8 SURE IF YOU ASKED 120 9 SURE IF I MISSED 117 10 SORRY IF I MADE 116

11 SURE IF YOU NOTICED 109

12 SURE IF I UNDERSTOOD 103 13 USEFUL IF YOU WANTED 99 14 SURE IF IT WORKED 98 15 NICE IF IT CAME 97

16 SURE IF I NEEDED 95

SURE IF I MENTIONED

  The Dad I’m not sure if I mentioned this but it can MOVE ON ITS OWN. For now, anime fans see the robot at the Gundam factory outside Tokyo.

It’s best not to bother with it for patterns and move onto another equally complex point.  Point 55 overlaps point 72 also in PAST simple with a range of subordinating conjunctions, including ‘as soon as’, ‘before’, ‘if’, ‘once’, ‘since’, ‘so’, ‘until’, ‘when’, and ‘while’.  However, there are no examples of ‘while’ in the top 100.  Most of these comjunctions are covered elsewhere in EGP too, so it makes for a lot of overlapping and clashing points.

_cs * _vvd

Here we have large amounts of language to deal with:

1 AS I SAID 80984

WHEN I GOT

  elle.com When I got to university I felt lonely, so I got a job in a local fish restaurant. It wasn’t long before I fell madly in love with Sam, the manager there .

3 LIKE I SAID 68658 4 WHEN IT CAME 67462 5 WHEN I STARTED 51703 6 WHEN I SAW 50681

7 IF YOU WANTED 46530

8 AS I MENTIONED 45016 9 WHEN I WENT 40408 10 IF I WANTED 35869 11 THAT I WANTED 35850

12 SO I THOUGHT 34825

13 SO I DECIDED 30925 14 THAT I FOUND 27689 15 THAT I GOT 27004 16 WHEN WE GOT 26169 17 WHEN I CAME 24938 18 THAT I THOUGHT 24293 19 WHEN I ASKED 24288 20 THAT I NEEDED 23982 21 BECAUSE I WANTED 23081 22 WHEN I TRIED 21622 23 IF YOU GOT 21226 24 SO I WENT 21056

25 THAN I EXPECTED 20940

26 SINCE I STARTED 20611 27 IF YOUVE GOT 20375 28 THAN I THOUGHT 20181 29 LIKE YOU SAID 19884 30 AS YOU SAID 19168 31 WHEN I FOUND 18806 32 THAT HE WANTED 18740 33 THAT I MADE 18158 34 BECAUSE I THOUGHT 18065 35 WHEN I HEARD 18007 36 IF YOU MISSED 17898 37 AS I GOT 17248 38 AS I THOUGHT 17060 39 WHEN I BOUGHT 16103 40 WHEN HE CAME 16010 41 WHEN HE SAID 15620

42 BEFORE I GOT 15229

43 THAT I BOUGHT 14820 44 BECAUSE I KNEW 14786

45 AS IT TURNED 14680

BEFORE I STARTED

  Kearney Hub Before I started, I saw a car similar to this from California. That’s where I got the idea for the 1937 Ford headlights.

47 WHEN I TOOK 14447 48 WHEN WE STARTED 14116 49 THAT I KNEW 14036 50 WHEN HE GOT 13992 51 THAT I USED 13982 52 IF THEY WANTED 13854 53 THAT IT TOOK 13789 54 THAT I FELT 13518

55 UNTIL I GOT 13158

56 AFTER I GOT 12972 57 SO I GOT 12870 58 WHEN I TOLD 12785 59 WHEN HE SAW 12709 60 WHEN THEY CAME 12648 61 AS WE SAW 12053 62 SO I WANTED 12044 63 SO I TOOK 12000

64 SINCE I GOT 11867

65 THAT I SAW 11796 66 WHEN WE ARRIVED 11708

67 WHEN I LOOKED 11515

SO I FIGURED

  LADbible Man Who Felt Tickling In Earmuffs Discovers Huge Huntsman Spider Inside So I figured I’d just pull the top off and check what the issue was.

69 IF I GOT 11210 70 IF YOU TOOK 11191 71 IF YOU USED 11127 72 WHEN WE WENT 11086 73 IF I KNEW 10981 74 IF YOU THOUGHT 10837 75 SO WE DECIDED 10759 76 SO I USED 10719 77 IF YOU BOUGHT 10716 78 IF HE WANTED 10594

79 ONCE I GOT 10512

80 WHEN I ARRIVED 10473 81 WHEN THEY GOT 10374 82 WHEN I MOVED 10329 83 IF YOU KNEW 10190 84 IF WE WANTED 10076 85 BEFORE HE DIED 10051 86 SO I MADE 10018 87 CASE YOU MISSED 9823 88 AS I WANTED 9782 89 THAT I TOOK 9751 90 THAT HE KNEW 9741 91 THAT WE NEEDED 9730 92 SO I STARTED 9722 93 WHEN THEY ARRIVED 9709 94 IF YOU MADE 9674 95 BECAUSE I FELT 9625 96 THAT HE MADE 9593 97 THAT I STARTED 9510 98 WHEN I SAID 9460 99 AS TIME WENT 9459

100 AS HE SAID 9428

1 AS SOON AS I SAW 4902 2 AS SOON AS I GOT 4837 3 AS SOON AS I STARTED 2003 4 AS SOON AS WE GOT 1806 5 AS SOON AS I HEARD 1418 6 AS SOON AS HE GOT 949 7 AS SOON AS I WALKED 928 8 AS SOON AS HE SAW 824 9 AS SOON AS I OPENED 819 10 AS SOON AS YOU HIT 732 11 AS SOON AS I FOUND 695 12 AS SOON AS THEY GOT 651 13 AS SOON AS WE ARRIVED 650 14 AS SOON AS I HIT 646 15 AS SOON AS I FINISHED 564 16 AS SOON AS IT CAME 558 17 AS SOON AS I ARRIVED 554 18 AS SOON AS I TOOK 551 19 AS SOON AS THEY HIT 544 20 AS SOON AS THEY SAW 527 21 AS SOON AS I TRIED 481 22 AS SOON AS WE SAW 473 23 AS SOON AS I CAME 466 24 AS SOON AS HE HEARD 461 25 AS SOON AS WE STARTED 461 26 AS SOON AS I TURNED 449

27 AS SOON AS SHE GOT 435

AS SOON AS I STEPPED

  RPI Athletics As soon as I stepped on campus it instantly felt like home. *‘as soon as’ overlaps multiple points on the EGP and EVP.

29 AS SOON AS SHE SAW 424 30 AS SOON AS WE WALKED 421 31 AS SOON AS THEY CAME 403 32 AS SOON AS I WENT 402 33 AS SOON AS I RECEIVED 400

34 AS SOON AS I REALIZED 386

35 AS SOON AS IT BECAME 379 36 AS SOON AS HE CAME 375 37 AS SOON AS THEY ARRIVED 375 38 AS SOON AS HE ARRIVED 369 39 AS SOON AS I LEFT 369 40 AS SOON AS I STOPPED 350 41 AS SOON AS I ENTERED 325 42 AS SOON AS I SAID 309 43 AS SOON AS THEY HEARD 298 44 AS SOON AS IT ARRIVED 290 45 AS SOON AS WE HEARD 283 46 AS SOON AS HE STARTED 282 47 AS SOON AS I PULLED 275 48 AS SOON AS I KNEW 268 49 AS SOON AS IT STARTED 268 50 AS SOON AS I SAT 266 51 AS SOON AS HE SAID 264 52 AS SOON AS HE LEFT 263 53 AS SOON AS I MADE 260 54 AS SOON AS THEY STARTED 256 55 AS SOON AS I MET 249 56 AS SOON AS SHE HEARD 248 57 AS SOON AS IT HIT 241 58 AS SOON AS I BEGAN 239 59 AS SOON AS I WOKE 222 60 AS SOON AS IT HAPPENED 210 61 AS SOON AS YOU GOT 206 62 AS SOON AS I MOVED 205 63 AS SOON AS IT GOT 203 64 AS SOON AS HE TOOK 201 65 AS SOON AS WE LEFT 201 66 AS SOON AS HE FINISHED 195 67 AS SOON AS WE HIT 195 68 AS SOON AS I LEARNED 191 69 AS SOON AS THEY LEFT 191 70 AS SOON AS IT BEGAN 187 71 AS SOON AS WE ENTERED 187 72 AS SOON AS HE ENTERED 184 73 AS SOON AS WE FOUND 183 74 AS SOON AS HE WALKED 178 75 AS SOON AS SHE STARTED 178 76 AS SOON AS WE STEPPED 173 77 AS SOON AS I FELT 172 78 AS SOON AS HE FOUND 167 79 AS SOON AS I RETURNED 165

80 AS SOON AS I NOTICED 164

81 AS SOON AS SHE ARRIVED 160 82 AS SOON AS HE BECAME 158 83 AS SOON AS I LOOKED 155

84 AS SOON AS I REACHED 154

85 AS SOON AS I SWITCHED 153
86 AS SOON AS I DISCOVERED 152 87 AS SOON AS THEY FOUND 152 88 AS SOON AS I PICKED 147 89 AS SOON AS WE MOVED 147 90 AS SOON AS I TOLD 146 91 AS SOON AS IT WENT 146 92 AS SOON AS WE CAME 144 93 AS SOON AS I ADDED 143

94 AS SOON AS HE STEPPED 139

95 AS SOON AS I GRADUATED 137

96 AS SOON AS THEY REACHED 136

97 AS SOON AS WE FINISHED 136 98 AS SOON AS HE WENT 135

99 AS SOON AS I MENTIONED 129

100 AS SOON AS I TOUCHED 129

B1 vocabulary:

discovered (1)

mentioned (1)

noticed (1)

reached (1)

realized (1)

stepped (1)

switched (1)

touched (1)

once_cs collocates _vvd

1 GOT 27195 2 STARTED 11561 3 HIT 8010 4 FOUND 5007 5 SAW 4298

6 ARRIVED 4050

REALIZED

  ESPN Australia Once I realized there wasn’t going to be any competition for some time, I decided to grow mine. *’Once’ is already set at B2.

8 BECAME 3889 9 CAME 3335 10 MADE 3073

11 REACHED 3051

12 BEGAN 2920 13 WENT 2776 14 TOOK 2387 15 FINISHED 2304 16 FIGURED 2220 17 KNEW 2158 18 LEARNED 1997 19 DECIDED 1942

20 LEFT 1902

since collocates:

1 STARTED 56743 2 BEGAN 38490 3 GOT 25799 4 CAME 23843 5 TOOK 21008 6 OPENED 13957 7 WENT 13088 8 LEFT 12440 9 BECAME 12069 10 MADE 11526 11 SAW 10007 12 BOUGHT 9950

13 MOVED 9544

LAUNCHED

  Glossy Since Inkey List launched its hair line, scalp-care products have been especially popular and have driven interest among men.

15 SAID 7512 16 JOINED 6875 17 ARRIVED 6280 18 WROTE 6260 19 KNEW 6177

20 FOUND 5869

UNTIL COLLOCATES:

1 GOT 32342 2 CAME 23449 3 STARTED 18260 4 FOUND 16927 5 SAW 12658 6 WENT 10509

7 BECAME 10249

REACHED

  Brookings Institution America should stay in Afghanistan until an intra-Afghan deal is reached— not forever. *this example is not past simple active but it is complex enough to warrant the B2 level.

*’until’ is also listed on EGP at B1 but not for being together with past simple.

9 HIT 9663 10 ARRIVED 7734 11 DIED 7331 12 TOOK 6817

13 REALIZED 6156

14 BEGAN 5916 15 MADE 5531 16 LEFT 5013 17 DECIDED 4902 18 MET 4823 19 MOVED 4737

20 TRIED 4713

WHILE + B1 COLLOCATES:

WHILE IT LASTED

(*this is quite idiomatic)

  New Statesman After debating whether to ration the alcohol I already had at home, or to enjoy it while it lasted, I went all in.

attended (1)

continued (1)

lasted (1)

remained (1)

seemed (1)