Who knows the proper way to use "had" in a sentence?

Question

It seems as though "had" is used in a redundant way. Such as, "I had talked to my attorney." "I had gone to town." "I had told him a story." Can someone help? It is almost like a double plural when it is used so much...what is proper? Thanks!

Answer 1

Maybe the link below will help.  Had is a helping verb in the past perfect tense.

Answer 2

I "had" to go to the store to get some flour to make bread

Answer 3

There are 2 types of "had":

1. The perfect tense of have, e.g. I have a dog, I had a dog.

2. Used in the formation of the pluperfect, e.g. I had had a dog years before.

You are talking about the second type.

The purpose of this type of "had" is to place actions further back in time than the perfect (the "I had a dog" version). For example, you could say:

"I went to town to buy some eggs and I saw her."

However, if you wanted to use "when", you would say:

"I had gone to town to buy some eggs when I saw her."

The action in the main thread of the story is the fact that you saw her, the going to town has already happened, so it needs to be further back in time. The first example doesn't need the pluperfect because the actions are described as a sequence so are not attempting to create a chronology. By adding "when" you create a time line in the action, which means the first action must be further back in time than the second action and this must be reflected in the tenses.

(It might help to start by thinking of it in the present tense. If you were in town describing the situation to a friend right now, you might say:

"I came to town to buy some eggs and here she is."

You have to transpose the sequence of tenses when you put the main action in the past; perfect (I came) is further back than present (here she is), so when you want to say "I saw her", you need to use a tense for the "coming to town" part which is further back in time, e.g. I had gone.)

Another very common occurence of the pluperfect is in "if" clauses: "if she had gone to town, she would have seen her." You cannot substitute "went" for "had gone" as if you use "went" the sentence has to become: "if she went to town she would see her."

Used on its own, as you have above, the pluperfect can also act to emphasise an action. For example, taking the sentence: "I went to town and she stayed at home", you can emphasise either action by putting it further back in time:

"I went to town to buy eggs. She had stayed at home."

"I had gone to town to buy eggs. She stayed at home."

There are other uses and this is a very brief overview, so if you want more details look it up in an English grammar book!

NB: I am English, so if you are American there may be different rules.

Hope that all makes sense!

Answer 4

i had not seen him all day

she had gotten the invitation yesterday

i dunno!!!!

Answer 5

I had an idea but I forgot

Answer 6

"wheres the bread"

"i dont know. i just had it!"

past tense of have.