Learn to use HAVE HAD and HAD HAD in just 5 minutes!

are you confused about how to use have had and had had in English today's lesson will help you with tons of examples if you want to save this lesson to read and review later you can download the free pdf by clicking on the link in the video description all right if you want to use have had and had had correctly first you need to understand the present perfect tense and past perfect tense both of them are formed by using a helping verb plus a main verb so the present perfect is have or has those are the helping verbs plus the main verb in the past participle for example I have finished all my homework she has gone to the store we have lived here for 3 years the present perfect is used when an action starts in the past and continues to the present as in the third example we have lived here for 3 years or when talking about past actions without saying specifically when they happened as in those first first two examples the past perfect is formed by had that's the helping verb plus the main verb in the past participle for example my husband had finished all the housework by the time I got home from work when I called Laura last night her husband told me she had gone out I had lived in five different cities before I turned 10 years old the past perfect is used when one past action happens before another past action or event so when do we use have had and had had well in the present perfect the helping verb is always have or has and in the past perfect the helping verb is always had and if the main verb is also have that's when we end up with have had in the present perfect and had had in the past perfect let's see some present perfect examples first I'm not feeling well I have had a headache all day day helping verb have and main verb also have but it's in the past participle so had I have had a headache all day she has had three children in the past 5 years we have had some problems with our computer systems recently he has had two surgeries on his back same in the past perfect we use had had when the helping verb is had as it always is in the past perfect and when the main verb of the sentence is also have moved to the past participle had for example last weekend I just wanted to relax because I had had a busy week the director told me he had had a meeting with the president we had had some trouble with our washing machine so we called a repair man she woke up screaming because she had had a bad dream one important note we almost almost always use the short form in spoken English for example I'm not feeling well I've had a headache all day so I have had becomes I've had she's had three children in the past 5 years that's she has had she's had we've had some problems with our computer systems recently he's had two surgeries on his back last weekend I just wanted to relax because I'd had a busy week I had had a becomes I'd had the director told me he'd had a meeting with the president we'd had some trouble with our washing machine so we called a repair man she woke up screaming because she'd had a bad dream okay almost always we use the short form in spoken English it's also common to have another word in the middle of have had has had or had had for example we've recently had some problems with our computer systems he's just had had two surgeries on his back the director said he'd already had a meeting with the president by the time I was 30 I'd only had one serious boyfriend now it's your turn to put it into practice can you make two sentences one with have had and one with had had I look forward to reading your comments download the PDF of this lesson to review it and remember it download the PDF of this lesson by clicking on the link under this video and if you like like to go further in your English fluency join my Advanced English grammar course because we go in detail into these tricky grammar situations we cover all the verb tenses complex sentence structures and much more and there are a lot of opportunities for you to practice you can find that on my website espresso english. [Music] net