3 ms·
It does. Although to make slightly more clear: "If you had had 'had' here" => "If you would have put 'had' here" "you would have had" => "you would have neede
by Xichekolas 18y ago
It does. Although to make slightly more clear:
"If you had had 'had' here" => "If you would have put 'had' here"
"you would have had" => "you would have needed"
"to have had 'have' there" => "to have put 'have' there"
That is the kind of really amusing sentence we say every day without thinking about it. I've caught myself saying similar things while speaking to non-native speakers, and it's always a crapshoot. We really are lazy and use the verb 'to have' a lot.
Nice example.
- silentbicycle 18y agoIt's probably used considerably more in spoken English, where intonation can help with the ambiguity. I have a hard time believing somebody would use "had" so many times together in writing without trying to rephrase themselves. 'Have' is also an interesting case, because aside from meaning the act of possessing, it is also a kind of case/tense modifier for other verbs. ("I ate" vs. "I would have eaten" + "the whole tub of gelato.") In the writing above, you put the third had in single quotes, which implies you're discussing the word usage itself rather than trying to use it again. Similarly, your intonation would probably be elongated. Granted, a non-fluent speaker may not yet pick up on these cues, but they are there.