... in case I had made/made a mistake

[Hotmale]

Hello,

I've been doing a cloze test, where for the gap I have the following alternatives.
a) made
b) had made
c) make


"They wanted me to enter my password twice in case I ............. a mistake."

I feel that "made" is correct, but I really can't understand why not "had made".

Thank you

 

[kayokid]

Hello. I think almost everyone would choose (a) as far as how the language is spoken today. Personally, I think (b) is valid, however, since the real meaning in my mind is:

They wanted me to enter my password twice, in case I had made a mistake the first time I typed it.

 

[panjandrum]

"They wanted me to..." expresses what they wanted before you had entered anything.
At that time, you had not entered anything, so the correct version is "... in case I made a mistake".
It was their desire, before you entered anything, that you enter your password twice ... in case you made a mistake the first time (still in the future at the time they expressed the need to have the password entered twice).

 

[kayokid]

"They wanted me to..." expresses what they wanted before you had entered anything.
At that time, you had not entered anything, so the correct version is "... in case I made a mistake".
It was their desire, before you entered anything, that you enter your password twice ... in case you made a mistake the first time (still in the future at the time they expressed the need to have the password entered twice).

I can't believe I actually followed that. It makes sense.

 

[Hotmale]

Thank you both. Thank you a lot

 

[Parla]

I agree with Panjandrum and would add this in further explanation: "had made" would be right if you had already entered your password once. The sentence would then be: They wanted me to enter my password a second time in case I had made a mistake.

 

[panjandrum]

I can't believe I actually followed that. It makes sense.

Thank you, I think