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Trex Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Reported speech

The doctor asked her whether she ---- an operation before.

A) has had
B) had
C) had had

C sounds correct, but what do you think about A and B? Are they correct too?
  

Top answer

Uh-oh! I would say all of them are possible. Maybe it's just me?

— Kooyeen

  • Uh-oh!
  • I would say all of them are possible.
  • Maybe it's just me?
  • Here are the first meanings that come to my mind: 1) The doctor asked whether she had had an operation before.
  • if she had ever had an operation before (that moment) 2) The doctor asked whether she had an operation before.
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3 Answers
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Uh-oh! I would say all of them are possible. Emotion: surprise Maybe it's just me?
Here are the first meanings that come to my mind:

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Well, do you think the addition to the question below will affect your choice, Koyeen?

'Have you ever had an operation before?'
The doctor asked her whether she -- an operation before.

A) has had
B) had
C) had had
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I think I would exclude B in that case, but I would still consider both A and C possible. It depends if you want (or need) to backshift or not. There are a lot of threads about backshifting here, you can search the forum if you want to learn more about that. It's only a problem if your native language doesn't have that feature though, I think.
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