HAS HAD, HAVE HAD, and HAD HAD

Have is one of the verbs that can be used as an auxiliary verb as well as a main verb. In this lesson, we learn how to use has had, have had, and had had.

HAVE as an auxiliary verb

As an auxiliary verb, we use have in the Present Perfect tense and the Present Perfect Continuous tense.

Look at the examples below:

• I have studied English a lot.
• My friends have helped me a lot.
• They have been doing it for a long time.
• I have been teaching English for more than half a decade.

In these examples, have is working as an auxiliary verb (helping verb).

HAVE as a main verb

As a main verb, have gives the following meanings: eat, take, drink, possess, experience, etc. It can be used in any tense as a main verb.

Look at the following examples:

• I have a beautiful puppy.
• They have my number.
• You can have this sandwich?
• I can’t have chicken today.
• Let’s have some drinks.
• I have fun doing this.

In the above examples, have is used as a main verb meaning take, drink, eat, or possess.

The past and the past participle form of have is had. Look at the following examples:

• I had breakfast already. (past tense)
• She had a lot of drinks last night. (past tense)
• I have had a lot of bad experiences. (past participle)
• They had had the food before we reached there. (past participle)

So, when has had, have had, and had had are used together, the first verb is the auxiliary verb, and the second one is the main verb.

Subjects used with has had, have had, and had had

HAS HAD	He, she, it & all singular noun names (singular subject)
HAVE HAD	I, you, we & they & all plural noun names (Plural subject)
HAD HAD	Both singular and plural subjects

Examples of has had, have had, and had had

Has had, have had, and had had are verb phrases that are used in different tenses. Let’s understand when to use these expressions one by one. Let’s start with ”has had first.

‘Has had‘

We use has had in the Present Perfect tense where ‘has‘ is the auxiliary verb and ‘had‘ is the main verb (the past participle of ‘have’). The subject used with it is always singular.

Has had examples:

• She isn’t coming for lunch. She has had lunch already.
• Ron has had enough alcohol. Take him to his place.
• Tony hasn’t had any sleep since yesterday. Let him rest for some time.
• He‘s had great experiences working as a trainer here.
• He‘s had enough of your excuses.

Contractions:

• He has had = he’d had
• She has had = she’d had
• Jon has had = Jon’s had

‘Have had‘

Have had is used with the Present Perfect tense with plural subjects. This is no different from the verb phrase ‘has had’ and does the same thing.

Have had examples:

• I have had enough rest. Let’s get back to work now.
• Jon and I have had amazing success recently.
• You have had many trips this year.
• I‘ve had these pancakes many times.
• They’ve had terrible experiences with the company.
• Have you had anything yet?
• I have had such tasty food in a long time.

Contractions:

• I have had = I’ve had
• We have had = we’ve had
• They have had = they’ve had
• You have had = you’ve had

‘Had had‘

We use had had in the Past Perfect tense where the first ‘had‘ is an auxiliary verb, and the second ‘had‘ is the main verb (the past participle of ‘have’).

Had had examples:

• They had had the food before we reached.
• She‘d had enough before we could stop her.
• Had he had the car fixed before it got dark?
• Before the canteen opened, we’d had lunch at a Chinese restaurant.

Contractions:

• I had had = I’d had
• He had had = he’d had
• She had had = she’d had
• We had had = we’d had
• They had had = they’d had
• You had had = you’d had

We can also use adverbs between has had, have had, and had had

• I’ve just had the drink that you sent.
• He has recently had a life-changing encounter with a beggar.
• Before she turned 25, she‘d never had a man in her life.
• You‘ve just had a bottle down your throat; you can’t have it anymore.
• I have always had a good time with you.

Now you know how to use has had, have had, and had had in English. Now you know these are verb phrases where the first one is an auxiliary verb (helping), and the second one is a main verb.

Practice set!

1. He ____ raw food multiple times. (has had, have had, had had)
2. My friend Mangesh ___ many affairs in his life. (has had, have had, had had)
3. They ___ eaten dinner before I joined them. (has had, have had, had had)
4. She ____ enough sleep when she drove back to her office. (hasn’t had, haven’t had, hadn’t had)
5. I ____ a lot of drinks when you came to pick me up. (has had, have had, had had)
6. She ___ food before 10 pm. (has had, have had, had had)
7. ___ you ___ these kababs before? (has had, have had, had had)
8. ___ he ___ enough sleep before he went back to work? (has had, have had, had had)

Answers:

1. He has had raw food multiple times.
2. My friend Mangesh has had many affairs in his life.
3. They had had dinner before I joined them.
4. She hadn’t had enough sleep when she drove back to her office.
5. I had had a lot of drinks when you came to pick me up.
6. She had had food before 10 pm.
7. Have you had these kababs before?
8. Had he had enough sleep before he went back to work?

FAQs