Diabetics R Us

[JohnEGreen]

Happy Birthday @JohnEGreen and enjoy your pancakes. We had ours on Saturday lunch time. Proper, normal pancakes, piping hot straight from the frying pan, spread with butter, a dash of lemon juice, and sprinkled with ...... sugar! Naughty but nice.

This is not the time for no heating or hot water @JohnEGreen , not in this foul weather. Not at any time to be honest. Take care.

We have three portable electric heaters going at the moment it's 2 degrees outside and goodness knows how much money we are going to have to pay out for the electricity being used but keeping warm is more important at the moment. And at least we are not using much gas

 

[Antje77]

Just a quick question as my brain refuses to see what went wrong, language wise, and my logic says this is right but it looks weird all the same. I posted this in another thread, is the 'had had' right or wrong? Yes I know no-one holds my quirks in your language against me, and the more I use it the less I care about my Dutchisms and my freely mixing up of my tomatoes and tomatoes but that doesn't mean I don't want to know.

'I clearly remember that one morning after my dog had eaten spaghetti and I had had to make do with whatever emergency supplies I had in my cabin (I worked on a sailing ship with tourists and I was late for dinner. The guests did save a portion of garlic-heavy spaghetti bolognese for my dog but not for me ). The wake-up doggy kisses were impressive. It didn't happen often that he had garlic and I didn't, luckily.'

 

[Deleted member 308541]

is the 'had had' right or wrong?

You can say it like this example, he / she had had a dose of the medicine, it's past tense I think my brain's mushy this morning...

 

[Jaylee]

You can say it like this example, he / she had had a dose of the medicine, it's past tense I think my brain's mushy this morning...

Or she did have a dose of the medicine..? But my eduction was sketchy back in the day with grammar..
I was just keen to get out to work & get mucky.

@Antje77 you could say the dog had eaten your spaghetti & you resorted to eating the "emergency rations.."
Though, I'd be more concerned about saving my skin than cooking a tin of "alphabety" if the boat went down..
Could spell disaster...?

 

[Antje77]

You can say it like this example, he / she had had a dose of the medicine, it's past tense I think my brain's mushy this morning...

Looks like my sentence made sense after all then

@Antje77 you could say the dog had eaten your spaghetti & you resorted to eating the "emergency rations.."

But he didn't, it was his spaghetti, as my guests saved it for him, not for me. They had a point too, I knew at what time dinner was going to be served and I was late, my dog couldn't be blamed for being late as he was with me!

Though, I'd be more concerned about saving my skin than cooking a tin of "alphabety" if the boat went down..
Could spell disaster...?

You have a good point too here
My post was mainly aimed at 2 of the long time regulars on this thread with whom I share a love of language (and other) nitpicking... This forum is simply the easiest way to find people who know the English language when I have a question, and the question nagged me so I wanted it answered
@JohnEGreen and @SaskiaKC , HELP!

 

[SaskiaKC]

Just a quick question as my brain refuses to see what went wrong, language wise, and my logic says this is right but it looks weird all the same. I posted this in another thread, is the 'had had' right or wrong? Yes I know no-one holds my quirks in your language against me, and the more I use it the less I care about my Dutchisms and my freely mixing up of my tomatoes and tomatoes but that doesn't mean I don't want to know.

'I clearly remember that one morning after my dog had eaten spaghetti and I had had to make do with whatever emergency supplies I had in my cabin (I worked on a sailing ship with tourists and I was late for dinner. The guests did save a portion of garlic-heavy spaghetti bolognese for my dog but not for me ). The wake-up doggy kisses were impressive. It didn't happen often that he had garlic and I didn't, luckily.'

The way you did it, "I had had to make do," is correct. It matches the tense of "my dog had eaten."

 

[Bluetit1802]

@Antje77 One "had" would have been OK, and also both "hads" were OK. Either will do. I would have been more worried about the dog than the grammar.

 

[JohnEGreen]

@Antje77 Yes that sentence made perfect sense I often had had to use it myself

Some times the written form of English does seem to look strange when you look at it I think that it is probably due to English being such a mixed bag of languages that sometimes it just does not look right even when it is.

 

[porl69]

@Antje77 Yes that sentence made perfect sense I often had had to use it myself

Some times the written form of English does seem to look strange when you look at it I think that it is probably due to English being such a mixed bag of languages that sometimes it just does not look right even when it is.

Would the one had been enough though? This is mushing my brain cells now

 

[Antje77]

Some times the written form of English does seem to look strange when you look at it I think that it is probably due to English being such a mixed bag of languages that sometimes it just does not look right even when it is.

I think it happens in every language (I know it does in Dutch and German). When a strange phrase or word catches the eye and you keep staring at it it starts looking even stranger.

I would have been more worried about the dog than the grammar.

Oh, that dog thrived on a diet of dry dog food whenever he was hungry and human food whenever people wanted to feed him Simple rules: No crisps, no sweets, leftovers are fine. He didn't overeat and never got overweight and didn't snatch food when it wasn't offered. He lived to almost 15 years old and died because I wanted to spare him and me the last phase of Alzheimer-like deterioration of his brain so no obvious diet related problems

 

[JohnEGreen]

Would the one had been enough though? This is mushing my brain cells now

'had had' is the form of Past Perfect Tence of the verb 'to have'. It is quite often used in the reported speech, for example: He said that he had had that book before. I didn't know that word had had such a meaning 20 years before.

May be one would be sufficient but I have always used had had in those circumstances and in that context.

 

[porl69]

'had had' is the form of Past Perfect Tence of the verb 'to have'. It is quite often used in the reported speech, for example: He said that he had had that book before. I didn't know that word had had such a meaning 20 years before.

May be one would be sufficient but I have always used had had in those circumstances and in that context.

And that is why I hated english grammar in school

 

[Jaylee]

But he didn't, it was his spaghetti, as my guests saved it for him, not for me. They had a point too, I knew at what time dinner was going to be served and I was late, my dog couldn't be blamed for being late as he was with me!

Lol, OK? Don't get me wrong.
I appreciate dogs are omnivores. There is a preference for meat. But they do like a little root veg
Peas & grass in the mix..
But the few hundred years we've been cross breeding these natural companions from some of the more feral breeds.
I don't feel they've evolved enough just yet even with our help, to knock up an Itallian..? Let alone metabolise it..

 

[Jaylee]

'had had' is the form of Past Perfect Tence of the verb 'to have'. It is quite often used in the reported speech, for example: He said that he had had that book before. I didn't know that word had had such a meaning 20 years before.

May be one would be sufficient but I have always used had had in those circumstances and in that context.

Maybe the use of a comma to chop sense into it??
He said he had, had the that book before.. Or told me he'd previously read, borrowed, owned the book..

I was too busy treating hypos at the back of the class with fluctuations on the eyesight..

Bit after my time. But I wish I had this trippy guy to help me..

 

[Antje77]

I don't feel they've evolved enough just yet even with our help, to knock up an Itallian..? Let alone metabolise it..

Oh, it's not a doggy diet I would recommend to others, it's just that this particular dog seemed to have innards of stainless steel

Maybe the use of a comma to chop sense into it??
He said he had, had the that book before..

The comma definitely doesn't add sense

 

[Jaylee]

The comma definitely doesn't add sense

Then he said he'd had that book before... But then, it may have been a gift & he never got round to reading it?

 

[Mike d]

Much more like it @Jaylee ... but I'm very critical on spelling / punctuation. A dying art much to our detriment.

 

[Deleted member 308541]

but I'm very critical on spelling / punctuation. A dying art much to our detriment.

All upper / lower case unpunctuated blocks of text get up my nose.

 

[SaskiaKC]

Would the one had been enough though? This is mushing my brain cells now

Two "hads" are better than one, in this case.

'I clearly remember that one morning after my dog had eaten spaghetti and I had had to make do with whatever emergency supplies I had in my cabin (I worked on a sailing ship with tourists and I was late for dinner.

English being what it is, you could have written "my dog had had spaghetti and I had had to make do ... " (with the emergency supplies). The fact that your dog had eaten the spaghetti (rather than had possessed it) would be understood. I might say, "That night I had spaghetti (I ate spaghetti), but the night before that I had had potatoes."

At least, this would be the case in American English.

 

[Mike d]

[QUOTE="SaskiaKC, English being what it is, you could have written "my dog had had spaghetti and I had had to make do ... " (with the emergency supplies). The fact that your dog had eaten the spaghetti (rather than had possessed it) would be understood. I might say, "That night I had spaghetti (I ate spaghetti), but the night before that I had had potatoes."

At least, this would be the case in American English. [/QUOTE]

All tense @SaskiaKC . And largely concur. However ....

"my dog had had spaghetti and I had to make do ... " The third "had" is redundant as it's in the same tense.