Sequence of tenses

[Lomaster]

I need a handy article explaining correct sequence of tenses. Like 帰るほどつまらなかった VS 帰ったほどつまらなかった and all the other situations where sequence of tenses matters which just don't come to my mind at the moment.

 

[Toritoribe]

Don't you have any textbook? (As for your example, "simile" vs "what the subject really did".)

 

[Lomaster]

You're right. Perhaps i shouldn't pester forum members with such trifling questions, and only resort to pestering on more complicated matters. Anyway, thanks for clearing out the difference between the two.

 

[nekojita]

I think part of the issue is that it is complicated - there are multiple situations in which you might see a mix of tenses in a sentence, and they're often not relating to a "sequence" of actions (e.g. lots of set grammatical forms like ~したことがある, cases where "past tense" refers to current state like 太った猫). Without concrete examples it's kind of hard to give any sort of answer.

 

[Toritoribe]

Yeah, that's exactly what I meant. It's too complicated and broad to explain as if asking us to write a textbook.

(In addition to the OP's example, 帰るほどつまらなかった can be used also for "what the subject really did".)