So many hads?

[Tom]

Dear Amy

I just read that once you suggested that the given sentence could be correct if punctuated rightly!Is it so?

1- " John while James had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher! "


Please give me some details

Tom

[Mister Micawber]

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A silly exercise, Tom. However, if you google 'had had had had had', you will find some answers, as well as some other similar sillinesses.
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Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mr. Micawber

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

As Mr. Micawber said, that collection of "hads" should not be taken seriously.

I wrote that in a thread when I was joking around with Michael (the Arabian Horses Fan).

But, it is true that you can find the solution using Google. Along with a couple of variations.

Amy
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Mister Micawber]

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Oops. No toes meant to be stepped on, Yank.
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_________________
Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mr. Micawber

[Yankee]

Hi Mr. M

No toe damage at all. I just wanted to verify what you'd said for Tom.

Amy
_________________
Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Jamie (K)]

When I was in elementary school, a teacher gave us a variation of that exercise: "Where had had had had had had had had had had had had had the teacher's approval."

We were supposed to capitalize and punctuate the "sentence" properly. Of course no one -- including my school teacher mother -- was able to do it, because it involved a character named "Had" and a character named "Had Had". Who would have guessed that? When I showed my mother the teacher's answer, she said, "Oh. Well, you didn't tell me the story had Lebanese people in it!" (The Arabic name Haddad is rather common in our neighborhood.)

I still think of this as the most despicable waste of time any teacher ever forced on us. Who in the world is going to guess that there could possibly be people named "Had" and "Had Had"!