How do you relate imaginary numbers with phase shift? How to imagine this? So I found this answer on one of the questions. I wanted to ask how the complex part can be related with the phase shift. I wanted to ask this on the same question but it didn't allow me. Could anyone please help me understand this concept. Even if I imagine this as a spiral with the value of the imaginary part changing, the starting time of the wave remains the same doesn't it? So how is it related to phase shift?

"Negative frequency doesn't make much sense for sinusoids, but the Fourier transform doesn't break up a signal into sinusoids, it breaks it up into complex exponentials:

$F(\omega)=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} f(t)e^{−jωt}dt$

These are actually spirals, spinning around in the complex plane:

complex exponential showing time and real and imaginary axes

Spirals can be either left-handed or right-handed (rotating clockwise or counterclockwise), which is where the concept of negative frequency comes from. You can also think of it as the phase angle going forward or backward in time.

In the case of real signals, there are always two equal-amplitude complex exponentials, rotating in opposite directions, so that their real parts combine and imaginary parts cancel out, leaving only a real sinusoid as the result. This is why the spectrum of a sine wave always has 2 spikes, one positive frequency and one negative. Depending on the phase of the two spirals, they could cancel out leaving a purely real sine wave or a real cosine wave or a purely imaginary sine wave, etc."
Paint a red dot on the blue complex spiral at t=0, where the value is 1.0.  Now roll the spiral upside-down until the red dot is at -1.0, still at t=0.  This roll would be equivalent to a phase shift of Pi.  Note that the real part no longer corresponds to a cosine wave that starts at t=0.  

But the real part of the rolled spiral does correspond to a cosine wave that starts (with value 1.0) at +Pi or -Pi, which is a different starting time, contradicting one of your assumptions above.

Thus phase is related to starting time.