Teacher Discussion Forums

One of my students asked me the following question.

(i) a. After Peter was on the beach, he had a bad sunburn.
b *After Peter was not on the beach, he rode his bike back home.
c *After Peter did not ride his bike to the seaside, he went to the beach.

(ii) a. As soon as Peter reached the beach, he took off his clothes.
b. As soon as Peter was on the beach, he took off his clothes.
c. *As soon as his care was new, Peter tried to sell it.
d. *As soon as his car was dirty, Peter washed it.

Are the sentences (*) grammatically wrong?
Then with regard to "tense", should the clauses including conjunction such as after or as soon as follow centain rules?

(i) b and c are wrong.

There is no clear connection between the event that didn't happen and the main clause.

The event that didn't happen must have some kind of result.

After he didn't turn up to work for the third time, he was sacked.

(ii) c is nonsensical. There is no period of time before the car was new; it was new from the beginning. Change the sentence to
As soon as his car was no longer new, Peter tried to sell it.
and you have a perfectly grammatical sentence.
(ii) d is perfectly correct.