• BreakDecks
    link
    fedilink
    English
    177 months ago

    My favorite confusing English sentence is “I have had too much to eat.”

    • “Have had” is the same word twice, once in present tense, and again in past tense. It counts as one verb.
    • Both “too” and “to” used.
    • “Eat” is a noun.
    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      197 months ago

      Think of it this way - it’s “have had” because

      “I had too much to eat” would be past tense, meaning you ate too much, say, last week

      “I have too much to eat” is future tense, meaning you went to the buffet and got carried away, now you’ve got a massive plate of chicken in front of you

      So "I have (right at this moment) had (just ingested) too much to eat (and now I’m farting a lot)

      Also, in this case “to eat” isn’t a noun, it’s the infinitive verb

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      97 months ago

      Technically “to eat” is the Infinitive form of the verb, and using infinitives as nouns isn’t all that unusual in many languages.

    • Jubei Kibagami
      link
      fedilink
      37 months ago

      Reminded me of this sentence:

      James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher.

      Explanation.

      • VulKendov
        link
        fedilink
        17 months ago

        Also sounds much less awkward if you contract I have. For Example: I’ve had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      27 months ago

      Most people are talking the infinitive case for “eat”, but I’d like to point out the verb, “have had”, is the present perfect case. Still confusing and still agree with your simplification of “I ate too much”. But there’s still a meaningful difference between the two sentences.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      17 months ago

      I don’t think eat is a noun here, but the grammar is weird isn’t it? Is the food the implicit object of the sentence? I need to study more.