Other options for "had had"? [closed]
Closed by System on Jul 26, 2013 at 00:51
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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"?
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"This nonsense was enough! It was time to move on."
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/8497. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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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.
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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.
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