The child woke up crying because she had ____ a nightmare.
A. had
B. dreamt
Note: Is the answer A? Why not B? Can I not fill-in anything? Namely, the child woke up crying because she had a nightmare.

Question

The child woke up crying because she had ____ a nightmare.
A.	had
B.	dreamt
Note: Is the answer A? Why not B? Can I not fill-in anything? Namely, the child woke up crying because she had a nightmare.

Answer

A nightmare is a (bad) dream, so it's redundant to repeat yourself. We "have" dreams.

You need past perfect here because it explains why she woke up crying (ie. the background/history to the past simple action).

"The child woke up crying because she had had a nightmare."

PS. No hyphens for phrasal verbs.

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