Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Sharonlove]

Dear teacher:
Today I read a book "Good luck",and didn't understand a sentence.
"He....and had had a life full of success."
Why it has two had?
Thanks.
Sharon

[dragn]

Hi,

This is the past perfect verb tense, which takes the form had + p.p. What's confusing in this particular case is that the main verb in the clause just happens to be have, and so the p.p. is had, too. For example:

I often have pasta for lunch.
I had pasta for lunch yesterday.
I started eating pasta at 11:30.
I stopped eating pasta at 12:00 because I was full.
I had eaten all the pasta I could eat.
I had had enough pasta by 12:00.

See what I mean? If you haven't studied the past perfect verb tense yet, then this can wait until you do.

Hope this helps.

Greg

P.S. If you really want to know more about the past perfect, I suggest you post again with a subject line that specifically says you have a question about the past perfect. Any teacher here can tell you all about it, in as much detail as you want.