Posted by Robert Thompson on 07/30/00 from 212.229.58.245 via proxy finch-09.www-cache.demon.co.uk:
In Reply to: Narrative flow posted by Dave W on July 30, 2000 at 12:16:16:
Why complain about "had had" when (if I remember what my English Grammar teacher taught me) it is grammatically possible to string eleven "hads" together as long as the correct punctuation is used. I think it goes like this:
Imagine John and Roger at school both doing the same English test, but Roger, being the Latin scholar, knows his tenses better;
Roger, where John had had "had", had had "had had". "Had had" had had the examiner's approval.
Phew! I'm just going to lie down.....