I wish I had had
In ESL podcast there is a dialog about unscrupulous partner, in which there is a sentence:
"I wish I had had the benefit of hindsight to say "no". (On the question about doing business together).

I`m not sure I understand the grammar of double "had". The construction that looks like "I wish I had something" is very common and emphasize that one wants to have something but he doesn't. But in this case where is the second "had" has come from?

Could you please give some explanations.

Question

I wish I had had
In ESL podcast there is a dialog about unscrupulous partner, in which there is a sentence:
"I wish I had had the benefit of hindsight to say "no". (On the question about doing business together).

I`m not sure I understand the grammar of double "had". The construction that looks like "I wish I had something" is very common and emphasize that one wants to have something but he doesn't.   But in this case where is the second "had" has come from?

Could you please give some explanations.

Answer

It's the past perfect tense.

http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pastperfect.html

You can read more about it from that site and others, now that you know what to search for. Explaining it here is difficult due to comment length limits (and I also want to go to sleep).

Answer

One had is to place the event in the past, and the other had is to indicate possession.

If it was like this: "I wish I had the benefit of hindsight to say no" the sentence isn't explicitly located in the past.

Answer

If you say, "I wish I had X", then it is a wish about the present situation. The use of the past tense is a subjunctive verb form here (notice there is no time indication given for this verb).

"I wish I had had X" is a wish about a past situation. This double had is - as other members have pointed out - a past perfect form. The first "had" is the auxiliary verb. The second "had" never changes, as it is a past participle.  If you change it to present perfect, you'll see "have had".

Answers · 6

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