conjunction + past simple

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.

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:

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.

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.

*’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.