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I am studying sequence of tenses but there is something that confuses me.
When the main clause is past simple, the book says you must use past perfect when you talk about previous actions.
Example :
I knew I had made wrong decision.
However, I see some sentence not obeying to this rule :
I knew she was ill previous night.
Could you please explain me this situation ?
The rule you are relying is not accurate!
Past perfect is not needed if the sequence is clear or the time of the action is specific
In your first example,
I knew I had made wrong decision.
Past perfect is required to show that the action of making wrong decision had happened earlier before you realized it.
In your second example,
I knew she was ill previous night.
The adverbial phrase(previous night) explicitly tell when she was ill. So past perfect is not neccessary. However, using past perfect is not wrong.
