Grammar

Question

Hey guys ! I am a little unsure about these sentences:

As an adult I was happy to had had such a carefree childhood.
vs.
As an adult I was happy to have had such a happy childhood.

( I realized that I had had a happy childhood after I grew up)
In this case, which one seems more correct to you?

Or another example:
When I came to the US I was happy to had learned English before.
vs.
When I came to the US I was happy to have learned English before.
( When I came to the US I appreciated that I had learned English at home)

Thanks for any sort of advice!

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

Consider this simple and concrete example.
'To have passed' is the perfect infinitive of the verb 'pass'.
Here's how you might use it.
At 6:00 pm yesterday, they told me that I passed the test.
At 6:01 pm, I was happy to have passed the test.

'To have had' is the perfect infinitive of the verb 'have'.

'To had passed' is not a correct infinitive in English. It has no meaning.
Nor does 'to had had'.

Please review the sentences in your post. Then ask again if you have any more questions about this.

Clive

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Just my passing two cents...

As an adult, I was happy to had had such a carefree childhood.
vs. There is no such construction in English.

As an adult, I was happy to have had such a happy childhood.

Here is my take of the sentence: If you digest the words and cconstruction of thie sentence, there may be questions. If you are an adult reflecting back your childhood. whe you use "was" , it may imply a slight hint that you are not happy at the present.

However, if you say" As a child, I was happy to have lived a happy childhood". That sounds better, but it still seems logically out of place. "To have lived...." is a present perfect infinitive which seems to be a mistift to describe your childhood, So to fix this, I would say simply say, " As an adult, I am happy that I had a happy childhood.".

( I realized that I had had a happy childhood after I grew up) This looks ok to me.

In this case, which one seems more correct to you?

Or another example:
When I came to the US I was happy to had learned English before. No,

vs.

When I came to the US, I was happy to have learned English before. This is

( When I came to the US I appreciated that I had learned English at home) This is fine . other than the missing period after "US".

That's my opinion.

Grammar

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