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"had" permissible?

English Language & Usage Asked on October 3, 2021

Grammar for CAE and Proficiency, Hewings
Backdrop: Stephen shares his experience after a job interview.

I admitted __________ (have problems) in the early stages of the work. [his PhD research]

The answers are as follows (I have an issue with the last one)

admitted having problems
admitted having had problems
admitted to having had problems
to them that I had had problems
to them that I had problems

Clearly, early stages of the work are in the past at the moment of speaking and so past perfect should be used in reported speech. Why past simple then?

One Answer

Since we don’t know the entire context or the person’s story except for the fact that it happened in past, any tense that is past is correct.

Simple, perfect, continuous, perfect continuous, past perfect, it all makes sense.

Answered by Natru on October 3, 2021

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