syntactic analysis - How to write past perfect forms of two verbs in one sentence

(1) Alex had quit his job and started a company before he won the lottery.

(2) Alex had quit his job and had started a company before he won the lottery.

I want to indicate that the act of quitting the job and starting a company happened before winning the lottery. I think (1) is grammatically correct and conveys the intended meaning. The word "had" before the word "started" in (2) seems unnecessary. Is my understanding correct?

Answer

Yes. Had is understood as being ellipted before started.

Comments

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