Can the past perfect be used to indicate a future action?
I would rather you had finished trimming the lawn by the time we come back.
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Where's the future action? There's a present request, but no idea what the future will be.– user3169Aug 21, 2021 at 17:45
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This is the future action "by the time we come back."– user1425Aug 21, 2021 at 19:25
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That's just a point in time. A request in the present was made, but we have no idea whether the action (trimming the lawn) will actually happen in the future. So, "a point in the future", yes. "A future action", it's unknown.– user3169Aug 21, 2021 at 23:50
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It's quibbling. It's a hypothetical future action. Plus it's absolutely out of the scope of the question how precisely it should be named or called.– user1425Aug 22, 2021 at 5:49
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