grammar: simple X past perfect

[apparrode]

Which one is correct and why:

a) Carol dreamed that her daughter WAS hit by a car.

b) Carol dreamed that her daughter HAD BEEN hit by a car. ?

(The accident happened in her dream!).

[RonBee]

Both are correct. The second can be seen as the preamble to something else. Perhaps:

• Carol dreamed that her daughter had been hit by a car. She was in the hospital in critical condition. Carol remembered being afraid that her daughter was going to die.

Does that help?

:)

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:)

[Tdol]

I don't think that 'dream' need follow the standard rules for indirect speech and would use the past tense as the most likely sentence. the second would also be fine, but would suggest that the accident had happened earlier in the daughter's life.

[valtango]

I'm not sure here, but if sentence (a) is simple past shouldn't it also be dreamt rather than dreamed??

[Tdol]

Both forms are used.