Mohamad Noh, a 67-year-old former winger, who was a household name to many Singaporeans in the 1970s, had suffered a heart attack on Sunday morning.
Should it be “suffered” instead of “had suffered”?
Thanks!
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Was there text before this?
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No context before this.
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With no context leading up to it, I’d go with ‘suffered’ rather than ‘had suffered’. To me, ‘had suffered’ seems more like an explanation of something previously stated.
Mohamed suffered a heart attack.
This is a simple statement of fact.
Mohamed had suffered a heart attack.
This feels like something should precede it.
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With the original text, I expected to see it preceded by something like “A local athlete was admitted to the hospital yesterday.” As @NearlyNapping said, “had suffered” would then explain this previous event.
Another possibility might be if this is part of an obituary. These can sometimes be written without stating the obvious - that the person died. In this case, the text might be preceded by a simple name and date.
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