8.30 occurrences in the past

When you are talking about a common occurrence in the past, you use the simple past tense or the past continuous tense in the conditional clause. In the main clause, you use the simple past tense or a modal.

• They sat on the grass if it was fine.
• If it was raining, we usually stayed indoors.
• If anyone came, they'd say 'How are you?'
• If they wanted to go out, they could always count on me to stay with the baby.
• Often I could not fall asleep unless I exercised to the point of exhaustion.