Other options for "had had"?

Question

Although the use of "had had" is grammatically correct, it doesn't read well and seems awkward to me. Take for example the following sentence:

I had had enough of this nonsense and was ready to move on.

What is a better alternative to using "had had"?

score 22 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:43

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Rewriting to avoid "had had" is almost always a good idea. It reads even more terribly than it sounds.

The easy way out is to use a contraction:

I'd had enough of this nonsense and was ready to move on.

...but that's a little cheap. Depending on the context of the quote, you have several options:

Having had enough of this nonsense, I was ready to move on.

I was fed up with this nonsense and ready to move on.

"Damn this nonsense and twirl my whiskers," I said, fully prepared and capable of moving along.

edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:43

Community

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answered Sep 01 '11 at 04:45

Goodbye Stack Exchange

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Depending on the context, you could try dropping the verb altogether: Enough of this nonsense. I was ready to move on. – Dale Hartley Emery Sep 01 '11 at 05:30
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Fiddlesticks, old chap! – Goodbye Stack Exchange Sep 01 '11 at 05:32
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When you say that using "I'd had" is "a little cheap," do you mean it's not a great solution, or that that's to simple to get rep for? :P Seriously, for general purposes, since you're just trying to avoid an awkward-but-simple construction, this can be a great solution. Of course, that kind of relies on the subject of the sentence to work... as do your other suggestions. – Standback Sep 01 '11 at 07:08
All I mean is that "I'd had" is a contraction for "I had had". It works, but I think the other solutions are better. – Goodbye Stack Exchange Sep 01 '11 at 07:10
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@Neil: I'm kind of assuming that if somebody really has this problem, it's because his favored formulation of the sentence leans strongly towards the "had had" construction. If he can easily swap the "had had" for a completely different sentence, that's rather less of a problem. – Standback Sep 01 '11 at 10:38
@Standback - "that that's" another one of those double word conundrums! – Steven Drennon Sep 01 '11 at 11:14
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Whereas "that's that" is a perfectly acceptable example I had had, and that's that. – Standback Sep 01 '11 at 14:08
Nicely done! I like the way people are rewriting the sentence. Sometimes you just blurt something out and don't want to spend a lot of time figuring out another way to say it! – Steven Drennon Sep 01 '11 at 16:08

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 01 '11 at 09:50

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How about:

"I was tired enough hearing of this nonsense and was ready to move on"

or

"I was in no mood to tolerate any more nonsense and felt ready to move on."

These could work well. Let me know if they fitted in well with your sentence structure; since you've only quoted half of it, I can't really tell.

answered Sep 01 '11 at 09:50

avenas8808

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I like the way you guys have rewritten the sentence. It just goes to show that it's better to write when you're more awake and alert and able to think more broadly! – Steven Drennon Sep 01 '11 at 16:07
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It's also easier to rewrite when you have perspective - which is easier when you're not the original author. – Goodbye Stack Exchange Sep 01 '11 at 16:54

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 25 '13 at 02:54

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"This nonsense was enough! It was time to move on."

answered Jul 25 '13 at 02:54

Dylan Kinnett

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Other options for "had had"?

3 Answers3