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If I had that book, I would give it to you.

I don't have the book, but if I did have it, I would give it to you.

If I had had that book, I would have given it to you.

I didn't have the book, but if I had the book, I would've given it to you.

Are both the interpretations correct?

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    Both are correct. Commented Jul 3, 2016 at 18:43
  • 2
    The first may also refer to a past habitual action: "On many occasions when we were students together you asked me for a book, and on each occasion, if I had that book I would give it to you." Ambiguities of this sort are generally ignored in teaching the 'n-conditionals', which is one reason many of us deplore this pedagogic categorization. Commented Jul 3, 2016 at 20:06
  • @StoneyB If there is one thing in the English language that I would eliminate if I were granted magical powers, it is the necessity, in certain narrowly defined circumstances, of using the construction "had had." Commented Jul 4, 2016 at 3:57
  • @P.E.Dant 1) I don't think had had is necessary in OP's second example. 2) Had had is eroding. What folks actually say is 'd had, and they're drifting toward 'da had. Commented Jul 4, 2016 at 10:16
  • Possible duplicate of Doubts with second and third conditional Commented Aug 13, 2016 at 4:32

1 Answer 1

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What seems confusing to me about the 3d Conditional sentence is that the "interpretation" is the same sentence without the double use of "had":

If I had had that book, I would have given it to you.

If I had the book, I would have given it to you.

Whether the use of the double "had" with a non-action verb, which "have" is here, in a 3d Conditional sentence correct, is another question.

Nevertheless, here is an example of the use of the double "had" when "have" is an action verb:

He has already had a drink, so he can't drive her home. (That's why she's going to order a taxi.)

If he hadn't had a drink, he could have driven her home. (That's why she got home by taxi.)

Also, see here.

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