I'm even more confused now. You say that you use the present subjunctive when the time frame of the 2 clauses are contemporaneous. It seems to me that in English the tenses are the same eg "I started" and "everybody warned" are both in the past tense. However, in the french translation it shows "commence" in present (subjunctive) and "tout le monde m'avait prévenu" in the pluperfect. Can you help please
Thanks