Had Had Tense: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know what the perfect tense is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on perfect tenses, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!

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What is the perfect tense?

The “had had” tense refers to what is known as the perfect tense. The perfect tense  is a category of verb tense used to describe completed actions, and is sometimes called the complete tense. The perfect verb tenses include the past perfect tense for a past time or completed action, the present perfect tense, and the future perfect tense. The perfect tenses or perfect aspect is formed using a form of the auxiliary verb “to have” and the past participle of the main verb. There are some irregular verbs that use a different form of the verb, but for the most part the past participle of a regular verb is used in English grammar. 

There are many other verb tenses such as the subjunctive mood, the past tense of the verb, the pluperfect proper, the conditional mood the past perfect progressive, the perfect participle, the imperfect subjunctive, a modal verb, the past participle, the past tense, a morpheme, an auxiliary verb, the indicative pluperfect, the indicative mood, the appropriate simple past form of the auxiliary verb, the place of a pluperfect verb, the absolute-relative tense, the distinct pluperfect, Latin pluperfect forms, the synthetic pluperfect, the additional perfect tense, the recent pluperfect, the remote pluperfect, the supine form of the main verb, preterite of the appropriate auxiliary verb, and other different perfect construction or variants. Grammatical tense is important for knowing the aforementioned time of action. These can be used to describe actions from the distant past time frame and more. Be careful to avoid passive voice and opt for active voice. These have a different word order.

The perfect tense is used in the grammar of other languages all over the world into modern European languages like Romance languages, Italian in Italy, modern Greek, Latin grammar, Polish pluperfect, French in Canada and France, Old Polish, Ancient Greek verbs, Judeo-Spanish verbs, Serbo-Croatian, Galician uses, Slavic languages, Southern Germany words with German influence, in a Portuguese example, in northern Transylvania, and other various languages. Perfect-tense verbs are very versatile. See if you can determine what languages the below words are in:

  •  ich hatte ihm geschrieben
  •  powinienem był zrobić
  •  el văzuse deja
  •  ja ŭžo byŭ pajšoŭ
  •  il avait déjeuné
  •  voltooid verleden
  •  ging ich ins badezimmer
  •  mais-que-perfeito
  •  trapassato prossimo
  •  dat
  •  bula
  •  eu fini de déjeuner
  •  het al twaalf uur geworden
  •  fost foastă
  •  que-parfait
  •  bile vode
  •  dopo che lo ebbi trovato
  •  es hatte regnen müssen
  •  zrobiłem był
  •  când l-am întrebat
  •  bernard comrie
  •  давньоминулий час
  •  voordat ik er erg
  •  pred nekaj leti
  •  ja vže buv pіšov
  •  poplavile vsa nabrežja savinje
  •  partizip perfekt
  •  ich habe ihm geschrieben gehabt
  •  nachdem ich aufgestanden war
  •  perfect τέθυκε
  •  italian consecutio temporum
  •  quando cheguei

What are examples of the perfect tense?

Below you will find examples of present perfect tense, examples of the past perfect tense, and the future perfect form of a verb used in the following ways from Your Dictionary and Soft Schools. Take a look at the following sentence and see if you can determine the tense of the second sentence.

  •  Will had won the race every year until this year.
  •  Anthony had met Ryan before you introduced him to us at the party.
  •  We wished we had purchased the winning ticket.
  •  I have had enough.
  •  I had finished the NYT crossword.
  •  They had had such objection to the external links that I have in. I was at my absolute limit.
  •  They had gotten engaged before last year.
  •  I have put the money in the machine. 
  •  I had done a little alteration to the dress.
  •  They lost many of the games because they had not practiced enough.
  •  He had just put the Welsh dog on the leash when we got there.
  •  The boy wished he had asked another question.
  •  The bus had just left when we got to the stop.
  •  She had established her company before 2008.
  •  By the time the show is over, Marie will have danced for 40 minutes.  I wished I had told the truth about her popularity.
  •  She wished she had seen her friend.
  •  I had fallen asleep before eight o’clock.
  •  The buyer had just left the bathroom when the ambulance arrived.
  •  He had never played football until last week.
  •  I had just gone outside when it started to rain. 
  •  The class has been outside for recess
  •  The team had had a drastic shift in a formal way.
  •  By the time I am 8, I will have saved over $1,000.
  •  Do you think the lunchroom will have cooked enough pizza for all of us? 
  •  The boss had said it would be a long meeting.
  •  My neighbor asked if we had seen her dog.
  •  I had finished my homework before mom called me for dinner.
  •  Jeff tried to hide the vase because he had broken it. 
  •  You had studied Italian before you moved to Rome.
  •  The teacher asked if we had studied for the exam.
  •  The usher asked if we had purchased our tickets.
  •  She stayed up all night because she had received bad news.
  •   By the time I get my paycheck, my bank account will have dipped into the negative 
  •  I had grown tired of the rural areas. It was like living in Soviet Times.
  •  I had watched almost all of the show about the nut before the power went off.
  •  The ELA student had asked for more examples of the pluperfect.
  •  My sister has taken martial arts lessons for six years. 

Overall, the perfect form is a verb tense used with complete actions. Examples of usage and disambiguation are above.

Sources:

  1. Past Perfect Tense Examples | Your Dictionary 
  2. The Perfect Tense Examples | Soft Schools 
  3. Verb Forms: “-ing,” Infinitives, and Past Participles – Grammar – Academic Guides at Walden University 
  4. Perfect Tenses | What Are the Perfect Tenses? | Grammar Monster