Do I have to use the past perfect tense in the sentence such as:?

Question

"The sky began to get dark before I got to the station. I should have brought an umbrella as my mother had suggested." instead of using the past tense like "...as my mother suggested."

Answer 1

"Had suggested" is better, because otherwise the suggestion could be one your mother always makes, or was making at the same time it was raining.

To be perfectly correct, you should have "the sky had begun to get dark" as well, but since there you have a "before" the meaning is clear with the simple past.

Answer 2

Using "as my mother had suggested" clearly delineates present from past behavior. However, past tense is communicated by merely putting "ed" on the end of suggested. You can write the sentence either way while conveying pretty much the same thing for the reader. Unless it's important for the reader to know exactly when your mother suggested that you bring an umbrella, it's a non issue.

Answer 3

You are too wordy.
The sky began to get dark before I got to the station. My mother told me that i should have brought an umbrella.

Answer 4

It sounds well versed. And it is standard English so go for it.

You might want to put a comma after umbrella for proper punctuation.

Answer 5

I disagree with the above person. I think the best version is "like my mother suggested"

Answer 6

i think it sounds better "...my mother had suggested" than "...my mother suggested" because your talking about something that happened before. That's my opinion

Hope that helps ;)