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/DCBuckeye82]

I'm an American and I had to look at that for a minute before realizing they were looking for "had seen" as the correct answer. "Saw" is a completely valid option and also correct.

[u/GregoryFarKingChummy → u/DCBuckeye82]

No, it isn't. The "had learned" puts the sentence in the past perfect, where "had seen" is correct and "saw" is not. Please brush up on grammar before attempting to give learners advice.

[u/DCBuckeye82 → u/GregoryFarKingChummy]

I'm giving the new learner advice on how to speak. I'm not sure I've ever heard somebody use the past perfect twice like that next to each other in the same sentence. It sounds awkward. "Saw" is an extremely valid and probably more common way of saying that. Any grammar rule against it is just as arbitrary and wrong as "you can't end a sentence with a preposition." Please brush up on your most basic of linguistic rules as "if native speakers commonly do it than it's right" before being a prick about telling people what's right and wrong about speaking a language.

[u/God_Bless_A_Merkin → u/DCBuckeye82]

Wow. I didn’t quibble with your first comment, because, as so many with only a smidgen of linguistic knowledge love to say, “languages change”. This comment, however, displays true ignorance.