Past or Past Perfect?

Question

I need help with choosing between past and past perfect in the following passage.
''I came across a survey where people had been asked if they would buy product X again. A lot of the buyers took part/had taken part in the survey. Some of them said/had said that it worked/had worked for them.''

Philip · Accepted Answer

I would use the past perfect only for "had been asked".  I imagine that some could see justification for that tense in the other cases, but I wouldn't use it.

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you Philip. I would like to elaborate the question a little more though. Let's say this was an old survey and I came across it somewhere so I went through it to decide if I should or shouldn't buy this product. And in my passage I'm telling someone that I decided to buy the product because of what the survey said about it. Would your answer be the same?

AlpheccaStars · Answer

''I came across a survey (an event in the past) where people had been asked (an event even earlier in the past, relative to the first mentioned event - "came") if they would buy product X again. A lot of the buyers took part (optional, but I would chose the simple past because it is not being contrasted with another event) in the survey. Some of them said (an event in the past) that it had worked (an event even earlier in the past, relative to the mentioned event "said") for them.''

Past perfect is selected using a judgement by the writer to contrast (or not) two events in the past that are mentioned in close association. It is a judgement call, and some will pick different verb form combinations.

Past or Past Perfect?

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