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Are both of these sentences acceptable?

  1. We had manufactured it but gave it to someone else.
  2. We had manufactured it but given it to someone else.

Is there a rule that says the past perfect must be used in the dependent clause if it appears in the main clause?

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  • 1
    Unless you have an irregular verb, like give, people may assume that the past perfect is used in the dependent clause if it appears in the main clause: "We had manufactured it but donated it to somebody else."
    – Peter Shor
    Apr 14, 2021 at 23:40
  • 1 definitely looks more normal, although 2 might pass as well. There's certainly no requirement to make the second verb here past perfect. Hopefully someone can follow with a more formal grammatical analysis.
    – Stuart F
    Apr 15, 2021 at 9:28
  • 2. is clearly ungrammatical. You have a choice between the past perfect "had given" or the preterite "gave" as in 1.
    – BillJ
    Apr 15, 2021 at 10:27
  • @johnlawler Is either of these ungrammatical?
    – Eric1982
    Apr 15, 2021 at 14:18
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    I wouldn't say so; each is a grammatical application of Conjunction Reduction on a different grammatical sentence. (1) reduces We had manufactured it but we gave it to someone else (duplicate reduced part boldface), while (2) reduces We had manufactured it but we had given it to someone else. Conjunction Reduction isn't only for pronouns.
    – John Lawler
    Apr 15, 2021 at 17:01

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