I misjudged vs. I had misjudged / writing vs. speaking

[James Trotta]

I was writing about how I sold Marvel Enterprises stock:

I bought Marvel Enterprises- MVL - the comic book company around 19-20 and sold around 24. When the stock went up to 29 I figured I had misjudged...

The first time I wrote this, I typed "...I misjudged" but I decided "I had misjudged" was better. Of course, if I had been speaking there would have been no time for me to change my words. I think that past simple (I misjudged) can usually substitute for past perfect (I had misjudged) in casual language use.

Feel free to respond with your own examples or start a new topic to discuss different grammar. More on the past perfect:
Past perfect "Arlo Guthrie" class from ESL go.com
Past perfect "Obong mountain" class from ESL go.com

[James Trotta]

Over the weekend I saw Dr. Scovel from San Francisco State University give a speech and he said that he doesn't think past perfect is very important. He doesn't even let his students use the past perfect! Considering that the past simple can usually be used instead, I think he's got a very good point.

[Jason M. Ham]

I'd have to agree with you and Dr. Scovel. We don't even notice when anyone substitutes the simple past for the past perfect in speech. I'd even advocate decreasing the use of the present perfect, but not dropping it from the language. We still need it to give emphasis to an action still being true in the present, although a lot of North Americans I know have seemed to dump it from active usage.

For students of the language, I'd say when in doubt (between simple past and past perfect), choose simple past. Your reader or listener will probably never notice.

using past perfect:

I married Gina Hwang in 2002. I had dated her for four years.

using simple past:

I married Gina Hwang in 2002. I dated her for four years.

You really don't miss out on much in the second example, except you may have to clarify when for your listener. You could simply do this by adding a time phrase. For example:

... I dated her for four years before that.