had had

Question

Hello again! =) I already understand this concept pretty well, but I just wanted to check it first.

I was watching something online, when I came across this:

1) I'd had a lot of friends in high school, but we parted our ways in college.
This is correct, is it not?

2) I had strict parents growing up, and there were many a nights when I sat at home bored and lonely.

Shouldn't it say "I'd had strict parents growing up..."? Or would that mean that the parents were no longer there or they were no longer strict when the action of "sitting at home bored and lonely" occured?

Would "I'd had strict parents growing up, and there had been may a nights when I sat at home bored and lonely..." make more sense, then?

Marius Hancu · Accepted Answer

1) OK
2) OK, but many a night

Milky · Answer

<Would "I'd had strict parents growing up, and there had been may a nights when I sat at home bored and lonely..." make more sense, then?>

No. If you want to talk about something that happened after you had grown up (a second past event), you could use the past perfect.

"I'd had strict parents growing up, which left me nervous of authority as a teenager".

In your original, "I had strict parents growing up, and there had been may a nights when I sat at home bored and lonely...", the events of having strict parents and being bored and lonely occured at the same time.

In "had strict parents" there is only one past: in "I'd had strict parents" there is a signal of two separate pasts that were connected in some way.

Lunchbox · Answer

Thank you Marcius and Milky!

But Milky, as you say, the events of having strict parents and being bored and lonely happened at the same time, so shouldn't "had been many a nights" be changed to "were many a nights"?

Afterall, "had been" is a past perfect tense, isn't it? So should it read,

"I had strict parents growing up, and there were many a nights when I sat at home bored and lonely..."

I won't make another thread for this question, so I'll put it here:

Once I had obtained this job, after six years of college and grunt work, I realized that I had finally achieved my dream.

"I realized" = past event 1
"Had obtained job" = "Had finally achieved my dream" = past event 2

So the obtaining of the job was completed first (the first past event), and then came her realization (the second past event). Did I get it right?

With past perfect, there will always be a second past event referred to. No exceptions to this rule, right? It's just that I could imagine a situation where "I had finally achieved my dream" could show up as the last sentence of a chapter, or a book. In that case, there woud be no second past event directly referred to. How would that work?

Milky · Answer

<But Milky, as you say, the events of having strict parents and being bored and lonely happened at the same time, so shouldn't "had been many a nights" be changed to "were many a nights"?>

Yes, but "night" and not "nights".

The expressions are:

many a night

many nights

<With past perfect, there will always be a second past event referred to. No exceptions to this rule, right? It's just that I could imagine a situation where "I had finally achieved my dream" could show up as the last sentence of a chapter, or a book. In that case, there woud be no second past event directly referred to. How would that work?>

Three time periods involved here, as always with the past perfect: 1. the time of speaking (the present of writing), 2. The time of obtaining the job/the realization. 3. the time prior to, and often leading up to, obtaining the job/the realisation.

PAST->>>>-33333333333332-------------1--->>>--FUTURE

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