by the time
prep. phr..prep. phr.. you use this to show that one thing happens before or at the same moment as another event.
prep. phr.. a complex prepositional phrase used as a temporal conjunction to indicate a deadline or a point in time by which an action is completed.
By the time we arrived, the movie had started.
By the time you finish your homework, dinner will be ready on the table.
By the time the rescue teams reached the remote village, the floodwaters had already begun to recede, leaving behind significant damage.
often used with the past perfect or future perfect to show the sequence of two events.
focus on the tense shift; learners often struggle to use the past perfect in the main clause when the 'by the time' clause is in the simple past.
By the time I will get there, he will leave.By the time I get there, he will have left.do not use 'will' in the 'by the time' clause; use the present simple for future meanings.