I had a car before she came
I had had a car before she came
Am I right that 2 is rather odd and implies that I didn't have the car anymore once she finally came and 1 suggest that I still had a car at the moment she came. Correct?
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also related: Past perfect continuous with different conjunctions and By the time and tenses and Past perfect with different time expressions and Does "by the time" mandate perfect constructions?– Mari-Lou ACommented Jun 23 at 12:11
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1Where is your research? Why are you confused despite the many many similar questions you have posted? Fix the old questions which have not received answers and go into more detail, explain why you think the examples are grammatical or incorrect. If you keep posting questions, and deleting them, the system will place an automatic ban on your asking questions. See: ell.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4861/… and "You can’t post new questions right now"– Mari-Lou ACommented Jun 23 at 12:20
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The repetition of had in #1 sounds clumsy to me. But ask yourself why you might say I had owned a car before I got married rather than Simple Past I owned a car before I got married. I can't see any scope for a different meaning there - so as ever, I recommend using the simpler verb form.– FumbleFingersCommented Jun 23 at 12:23
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2Does this answer your question? If not, just search "had had" on this site and there are dozens of questions that will. Should I use "had had", "did have", or "had"?– AstralbeeCommented Jun 24 at 9:16
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