That Torpid Gamer wrote:I get the buffalo thing, but the had had "had had" not so much. Nonetheless, awesome thread guys
James, while John had had "had", had had "had had"; "had had" had had a better effect on the teacher
You need background to understand it:
"The example refers to two students, James and John, who are required by an English test to describe a man who, in the past, had suffered from a cold. John writes "The man had a cold" which the teacher marks as being incorrect, while James writes the correct "The man had had a cold." Since James' answer was right, it had had a better effect on the teacher."
Jhon has "had"
James has "had had"
"had had" and "had" are objects (if you really need a different referent, think of this two as dow2 skills). Now, "had had" worked better on the teacher than had
Remember also that commas also work as parenthesis and they correct way to use them is to make things able to switch the position of the sentence at any point left or right of the comma. So
James, while John had had "had", had had "had had" can be translated to
James (while John had had "had") had had "had had" and then to
James had had "had had" while John had had "had" or
while John had had "had" James had had "had had"