We wish that we had had more time last night.
Why 'had' used twice here?
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1Hello, faisal. Please look up the term 'past perfect'. Basic English is better asked about on our sister site, ELL.– Edwin AshworthCommented Jan 31, 2020 at 16:19
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1Does this answer your question? What does "had had" mean? How does this differ from "had"?– FumbleFingersCommented Jan 31, 2020 at 16:41
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1One key difference is it's perfectly possible to say We wish that we had more time tomorrow, but it's logically almost impossible to say We wish that we had had more time tomorrow (but just about possible with tonight, provided time of utterance is very late in the evening).– FumbleFingersCommented Jan 31, 2020 at 16:44
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Two different meanings of "had".– Hot LicksCommented Jan 31, 2020 at 17:47
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2 Answers
I wish I had had… is a way to talk about past wishes that weren't fulfilled. You can read more about this here:
To talk about past wishes, we can use the structure I wish I had had… Note that the second had in this structure is the past participle form of have. Past participle forms of other verbs are also possible in this case.
In your sentence, We wish that we had had more time last night, they wanted to have more time last night but they didn't and so they regret it now.
The first "had" is an auxiliary verb that is used to form the perfect aspect. The second is a verb indicating possession or experience. Basically, they are different verbs that have the same form.
