Sentence Correction

capnx wrote:there's a little discussion here:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/howard-stern-mgmat-82346.html

He had success. past tense (had used as a real verb)
He had had success. past perfet (1st had, helping verb, indicating perfect tense; 2nd had, real verb, to possess, to hold, to own...)
it sounds awkward because it's not used this way often, but there's no real grammar mistake in A

lunarpower wrote:

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i feel your pain here, because you're confusing two completely different uses of the word "had".

one use of "had" is the PAST TENSE of the infinitive "TO HAVE". (let's call this "had1")
this is like other past tenses, such as "was", "chose", "ran", "threw".

another is the PAST PARTICIPLE of the infinitive "TO HAVE". (let's call this "had2")
this is like other past participles, such as "been", "chosen", "run", "thrown".

the other is as a HELPING VERB that appears in the PAST PERFECT. (let's call this "had3")

here's how "to have" is conjugated:
present: he has the flu.
past: he had the flu. (this is had1)
past perfect: he had had the flu. (this is had3 had2)

analogy: some other random verb, such as "to choose"
present: he chooses the steak entree.
past: he chose the steak entree.
past perfect: he had chosen the steak entree. (this is had3)

the difficulty here lies in not confusing the different "had"s.

hope that helps

lunarpower wrote:

mehravikas wrote:Does that mean we never need had had such a sentence:

he had chosen the steak entree. (this is had3)
he had had chosen the steak entree. (this is had3) - incorrect

but it would correct to say - he had had a steak entree

all correct.

note that "had had success" and "had had a steak entree" are ok, because "success" and "steak entree" are NOUNS.

you can't have had3 + had2 + chosen, because then you have 2 past participles in a row. that's not allowed.

lunarpower wrote:

mehravikas wrote:Thanks heaps Ron.

Would you be able to give an official prep or MGMAT CAT problem which has an example of had had (apart from the one posted in this forum). I have come across "had had" problem for the first time. Just want to go through 1-2 more problems. It's difficult to find such sentence correction questions.

there aren't any others in our tests, as far as i know. we try not to overdo things; every question that repeats a topic is a question that precludes the appearance of another topic.

in any case:

if this is too confusing, then try replacing "had" (not the helping verb, but the participle or past tense) with some synonym.
depending on the context, this could be "owned", "achieved", "experienced", etc.

here "had" is being used in the context of success, so "achieved" is probably the best substitution.
so, in this problem, choice (a) would be "had achieved", (b) would be "has achieved", (c) just "achieved", etc. ironically, it would render choices (d) and (e) identical, throwing them both into doubt.
(note that (d) and (e) are perfectly correct grammatically; they just don't make sense from a logical standpoint, as they seem to present a concordance where there should be a contrast.)

this will probably do wonders as far as making the point more clear.

--

on a lighter note:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_whil ... he_teacher

mehravikas wrote:Though he had had success broadcasting his controversial radio program on highly regulated terrestrial airwaves, Howard Stern opted out of terrestrial broadcasting in favor of the less regulated satellite radio medium.

a. Though he had had
b. Though he has had
c. Even though he had
d. Having had
e. Having achieved

OA: A
Source: MGMAT Practice Exams
Doubt: [spoiler]Why do we need had had, what is the difference between using had had and had. Is it past perfect vs simple past?[/spoiler]