Told you / Had told you

[rajan91]

I'm familiar with this sentence "I told you."
Can i say with the same reference "I had told you." If not, could you please suggest me where i can use this sentence.
Thank you.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Can you provide us with some context?

 

[rajan91]

Take a simple example:
M1- Sorry I forgot your name. Can you please tell me again.
M2- How can you forget it, I told you my name or I had told you.

 

[Rover_KE]

Only the past tense is correct: 'I told you my name'.

'I had told you' is the past perfect tense and you need to have a reason to use it.

Click here for a handy tutorial about it.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Take a simple example:
M1- Sorry I forgot your name. Can you please tell me again?
M2- How could you forget it? I told you my name or I had told you.

MNY

 

[Matthew Wai]

'I had told you' is the past perfect tense and you need to have a reason to use it.

'Had told' happened before 'forgot'. Could it be the reason?

 

[emsr2d2]

That's only relevant in reported speech.

Direct speech

A: What's your name?
B: Sarah.
A: Would you like a drink, um, ...? I'm really sorry, I've forgotten your name.
B: How can you have forgotten it already? I told you it less than ten seconds ago!

Reported speech:

A asked B what her name was. She told him it was Sarah. A then asked her if she wanted a drink but said he had forgotten her name. She said she was surprised that he had already forgotten it because she had told him it was Sarah less than ten seconds earlier.

 

[Barb_D]

On your way home from the office party:
I can't believe you called my boss by the wrong name after I'd told you his name over and over!

Possible.

 

[Matthew Wai]

'How could you have forgotten it? I had told you before.'
Is it correct to use 'had told' above?

Only the past tense is correct: 'I told you my name'.

Is this because 'How could you forget' refers to the present?

 

[rajan91]

What about this sentence-
"I understood what he had wanted to say". I think sentence should be correct because the action of "saying" takes first place than the action of "understanding". Please explain to me it is correct or not.

 

[Matthew Wai]

What about this sentence-
"I understood, what he had wanted to say".

I would say 'I understood what he wanted to say', but I am not a teacher.