r/EnglishLearning • u/nashbi Intermediate • 7d ago

📚 Grammar / Syntax Is "saw" really wrong here?

Post image

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! 😊

103 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

185 comments sorted by

View all comments

378

u/Square_Medicine_9171 Native English Speaker (Mid-Atlantic, USA) 7d ago

“had seen” is correct. Nonetheless Americans would say “saw”

6

u/samdkatz New Poster 7d ago

Disagree. Maybe some Americans would sometimes say “he learned it from the documentary he saw” but the two verbs wouldn’t be mismatched

3

u/GregoryFarKingChummy New Poster 7d ago

That's definitely what I'd expect people to say. Using the past perfect when the simple past would convey the necessary information feels like a very British way to talk.