Tense & Clause

[APARIDA]

Hi,

I have following two questions. Please help.

A. Which of the following two sentences is correct and why?

I told you earlier ....
I had told you earlier...

Past perfect tense is used to present the sequence of two past events. But in this case, it's just one event and hence simple past should be the best pick. I found few sentences in OG resembling the second sentence structure and hence the question.

B. Is the following sentence correct?

[deleted by moderator]

I found the above sentence as an OA in OG. I feel the highlighted "THAT" is not required as it is trying to introduce a clause which is not required in the above sentence. Both sides of AND are not parallel.

The issue is more evident when the modifier is taken out.

[deleted by moderator]

Thanks so much for your help.

[esledge]

I'm sorry to be a stickler, but we can't discuss OG problems here for copyright reasons. My suggestion: write a new sentence that has the same structure as the OG question, and repost. In fact, you may even find that by writing your sentence, you will find the answer to your question.

If you repost, please do so in a separate thread. Keeping our one-question-per-thread rule makes it easier for people to search and use the forum.

A. Which of the following two sentences is correct and why?

I told you earlier ....
I had told you earlier...

Past perfect tense is used to present the sequence of two past events. But in this case, it's just one event and hence simple past should be the best pick. I found few sentences in OG resembling the second sentence structure and hence the question.

It's impossible to say without the rest of the sentence. If there are no other verbs in the sentence, then there's no justification for past perfect.

CORRECT: I told you earlier my name.
INCORRECT: I had told you earlier my name.

If there is another past tense verb hidden somewhere, then you could justify past perfect.

CORRECT: I had told you earlier that we would have to climb several flights of stairs because the elevator was/is broken.

But because earlier indicates order of events in much the same way that past perfect does, you might even be able to use simple past to convey the same meaning:

CORRECT, too: I told you earlier that we would have to climb several flights of stairs because the elevator was/is broken.