Ahoj,
v několika textech jsem narazil na vazbu, kterou bych předtím považoval za nesprávnou. Dva příklady jsem si vypsal:

Some mud boulders had rolled down from the cliff and were standing at the bottom; it would only be a short time before the sea would dissolve them.

He got there early, twenty minutes before the first bell would ring.

Nevíte prosím, proč je v těchto případech po BEFORE použito WOULD? Já bych vždy použil pouze minulý čas.

Když se věty převedou do přítomnosti a místo WOULD se použije WILL, jedná se podle mě o chybu.

Snažil jsem se hledat ve Swanovi a na internetu, ale nikde jsem se o této vazbě nic nedočetl. Víte někdo, o co se jedná? Můžete mě případně odkázat na nějaký zdroj?

Díky

The future in the past

Sometimes when we are talking about past events, we want to refer to something that was in the future at that time. In order to do this, we use the past tenses of verbs we would normally use to talk about the future.

These forms can be used for plans, predictions and events that do happen – and ones that don't happen.

1. Am/is/are going to becomes was/were going to

• I was going to go for a run today, but I feel a bit tired now!
• I knew it was going to be sunny today! (…)

2. Present continuous becomes past continuous

• Sorry I was in a rush earlier, I was meeting Neil at 10 o'clock and I didn't want to be late.
• I was meeting a friend for lunch, but I've go too much to do so I'll have to cancel.

3. Will becomes would/'d

• Oh I told Neil I'd call him later… I need to do that!
• I knew Alex would be late today.

And see Význam would v příkladu.

Věděl jsem (tehdy), že se něco stane: What did I know (at that time)? “Something is going to happen.” I knew something was going to happen. What did I know (at that time)? “Something will happen”. I knew something would happen. Význam je stejný, můžete použít was going to nebo would.

I když jsem si to nechtěl připustit, věděl jsem, že to nebude jako každý jiný zápas

• Although I didn't want to admit it, I knew it would not / was not going to be like every other match.

Byl vystrašený, věděl jsem, že to neudělá,

• He was scared. I knew he would not / was not going to do it.

Dobrý den, Dane,
děkuji za odpověď. Ptal jsem se ale na něco trochu jiného. Tomu, co jste napsal, já dobře rozumím. Zaskočilo mě ale, že WOULD následuje po BEFORE, co by prostředek k vyjádření budoucnosti v minulosti.

Zde je budoucnost z pohledu přítomnosti:

I will get there twenty minutes before the first bell rings.

Pokud vím, zde po BEFORE nemůžeme použít WILL. Patří tam přítomný čas. Myslel jsem, že pokud takovou větu převedeme do minulosti, není stejně tak možné použít WOULD. V mých příkladech to ale takto použito je.

He got there early, twenty minutes before the first bell would ring.

Já osobně bych řekl:
He got there early, twenty minutes before the first bell rang.

There's nothing unusual about using “before” in this future-in-the-past construction. Here are three ways of saying the same thing:

• He got there 20' before the first bell would ring.
• He got there, and 20' later the bell would ring.
• He got there, and 20' after(wards) the bell would ring.

The whole point about the future in the past is the perspective from which the actions are viewed.

• He got there early, 20' before the first bell would ring.
• He got there ---->- speaker's per­spective → the bell will ring in 20'.

(In the above example, from the speaker's per­spective, the bell hasn't rung yet.)

• He got there early, 20 minutes before the bell rang.
• He got there ---->. the bell rang 20' later → speaker's per­spective.

(In the above example, from the speaker's per­spective, the bell has already rung.)

In “I will get there 20' before the first bell rings” the future time is already indicated by “I will get there”, so there's no need (and in fact it would be wrong, as you note,) to say “before the bell will ring”.

Michale, myslím, že rozdíl je v tom, že v přítomnosti jde většinou opravdu o kombinaci “I will do it before it happens” apod., takže tam ta budoucnost už je a nevyjadřujeme ji znovu po BEFORE (jak píše Dan).
Ve větě v minulosti to odpadne.
Nejde primárně o to, zda lze kombinovat BEFORE a WILL, ale jen o jedno vyjádření budoucnosti v takovém souvětí.
Viz článek Přítomný čas místo budoucího WILL.

Nejedná se spíš o toto?

https://www.helpforenglish.cz/…-v-minulosti

That's indeed possible, but unlikely – in my opinion – in the case in question. Bohužel řešíme jednu větu vytrženou z kontextu. If “he got there” was meant to describe a repeated action (“chodíval”) we would expect that sense of repetitiveness to be brought out in the first verb (“got there”), not the second (“bell would ring”), as follows: he would / used to get there early, 20' before the first bell rang.

If we see “he got there”, we understand “got there” (out of context) as a one-time action, and “the bell would ring” as a future-in- the-past construction. In this example, the use of “would ring” as a future in the past is rather formal literary style. As Michal says, in normal (non-literary) style, we'd say "he got there early, 20 minutes before the first bell rang. The meaning is identical, the difference is in style: formal vs. normal.

Moc vám všem děkuji za odpovědi.