Sequence of tenses

Hi,
Please, which is better:
1. When Jim left I remembered I had forgotten to give back his book.
2. When Jim had left I remembered I had forgotten to give back his book.

In most cases when I’m torn between two choices either turns out to be correct. Again?

Tnx for your help.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Humble

Hi,
Please, which is better:
1. When Jim left I remembered I had forgotten to give back his book.
2. When Jim had left I remembered I had forgotten to give back his book.

In most cases when I’m torn between two choices either turns out to be correct. Again?

Tnx for your help.

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In my opinion, neither sentence is very good, although both are understandable.

When you feel ambivalent about which way to say something it sometimes helps to reconstruct the sentence.

Try - After Jim had left I realised I had forgotten to return his book

Yes, that's better. Thanks, Curm.