Grammar rules
When I had started building the Time Machine, I had had the stupid idea that the people of the future would certainly be far ahead of us in all their inventions.'.
I have a question. Is it Mix conditional or not? Could you explain grammatical structure of this sentence?
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Grammar rules
When I had started building the Time Machine, I had had the stupid idea that the people of the future would certainly be far ahead of us in all their inventions.'.I have a question. Is it Mix conditional or not? Could you explain grammatical structure of this sentence?
If you want your reader to have the two phrases occur at the same time, use simple past tense:
When I started building the Time Machine, I had the stupid idea that the people of the future would certainly be far ahead of us in all their inventions.'.
Conditional:
Usually when you use this form, the sentence has two phrases. One phrase takes place before the other. The timing of the two phrases is important to the sentence. Only one phrase uses conditional, the phrase that occurs earlier in time.
BEFORE/BY THE TIME I started building the Time Machine, I had had the stupid idea that the people of the future would certainly be far ahead of us in all their inventions.
WHEN/BEFORE/BY THE TIME I started building the Time Machine, (This phrase is occurring now.)
I had had the stupid idea that the people of the future would certainly be far ahead of us in all their inventions. (This phrase has occurred earlier.)
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