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I'll
reply to the second question first.
You could say: I wanted to call you, Bjoco. The meaning
is roughly the same although if you use wanted, the idea
of the speaker's intention of calling is not so strong. Closer equivalents
would be: I intended to call you / I was intending to call you.
The future seen from the past
Sometimes when we are discussing past events, we want to refer
to something that was in the future at that time. In order
to express this idea, we can use the past tenses of the verbs we
would normally use to talk about the future. Thus,
is going to > was going to
- I'm going to leave Britain to start a new life
in Canada. >
When I heard that she was going to leave Britain to start
a new life in Canada, I was quite upset.
Other future verb forms change in the same way:
present progressive > past progressive:
- We're meeting Jane outside the town hall at
three o' clock. >
We left school before the classes were over because we were
meeting Jane outside the town hall at three o' clock.
will > would
- If I play my CDs while I'm working, it won't disturb
you, will it? > I didn't think my music would
disturb her, but it did.
future progressive: will + be + verb-ing > would + be + verb-ing:
- Don't phone them now, they'll be having supper.
- I didn't want to phone them at that time because I thought
they would be having supper.
future perfect: will have + past participle > would have
+ past participle:
- I'll have finished writing up this report by noon,
so we will be able to watch the tennis this afternoon.
- I thought I would have finished that report by noon
and then we could have watched the tennis, but it took longer
than expected.
is to be > was to be; is about to > was about to:
- The factory is to be closed down and all the work
(is to be) transferred to Germany.
- I was on holiday in Greece when I heard that the factory
was to be closed down.
- Please take your seats, ladies and gentlemen. The performance
is about to begin.
- We weren't able to finish our drinks. We had to take our
seats as the performance was about to begin
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