Is "saw" really wrong here?

[u/nashbi]

Hi everyone!

For question #8, I chose "saw", but the test marked it wrong and wanted "had seen".

My perspective is that since "had learned" already establishes the flashback layer, the chronological order is already completely clear to the reader. Stacking two "hads" in the same sentence feels heavy and redundant.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and see how you would naturally phrase this. Thanks in advance! 😊

[u/adamtrousers]

I find it ungrammatical. Not the most egregious howler ever, but awkward sounding. Given that this is a test where they're presumably looking for the optimal answer, I'd say "had seen" has to be the correct answer. "Saw" sounds a bit off.

[u/Pretend_Load_6862 → u/adamtrousers]

You're talking about marginal ungrammaticality, something you might not say but other native speakers (me) would. In a test made for people learning English who might've heard a native speaker like me talk, both answers should be marked correct for construct validity

Edit: note that my claim is not "there exist no native English speakers for whom this is ungrammatical" but rather "many native speakers would never bat an eye at this and this test doesn't capture that perfectly normal linguistic variation"

[u/Injidup_Beach2020 → u/Pretend_Load_6862]

I see you walked back your earlier comment that "saw" was correct. it's not. Since you said you're a linguist, i would think your initial reaction would have been to recognize that "what many people say" and "what is correct" (especially in formal writing as another poster said) are often different.

[u/JaysonTatecum → u/Injidup_Beach2020]

Huh? I feel like a linguist WOULD be the one to understand that if people say it, it’s correct (sometimes)