• @TriflingToad
    link
    139 hours ago

    I don’t get it after the 2nd had, any chance someone else understands?

    • @khannie
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      English
      188 hours ago

      It needs a comma.

      All the good faith I had had, had had no effect.

      Essentially “all the food faith I previously had, didn’t have any effect”.

      Good God English is an awful language.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        23 hours ago

        It doesn’t need a comma, it needs restructuring. When phrasing it like this, it is customary to add a comma between two adjacent verbs. You could even argue that the first part is an introductory phrase, which would explain the comma too.

      • @[email protected]
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        fedilink
        13
        edit-2
        8 hours ago

        I’m pretty sure it is grammatically correct with no comma. The version you provided is a comma splice.

        To slightly change the tense, All the good faith that I had had no effect is grammatically correct with no comma, so the gerund form should also not need a comma.

        • @khannie
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          English
          8
          edit-2
          8 hours ago

          Perhaps. Regardless it’s outlandish abuse of the tongue IMO and definitely would benefit from the comma because nobody’s going to just bang out 4 had’s in a row in speech without a pause without a justifiable slap across the chops and possibly a challenge to a duel.

          “But your honour, he said ‘had’ four times on the trot without pause”

          “Case dismissed”

        • @khannie
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          English
          38 hours ago

          You’re welcome. :) Took me a minute tbh. Not sure if the wine I’ve had helped or hindered. It’s 2:30am here.

      • @pyre
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        38 hours ago

        no it’s not. you can find quirks like this in every language.

        • @khannie
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          English
          27 hours ago

          True enough but I feel like English has more quirks than other languages though I acknowledge that may be bias.

          I used to have near fluent Irish way back when and I don’t recall any shenanigans like this (again I acknowledge I may not have been presented with them). I feel like most other languages have a more clearly defined set of pronunciation rules too.

          Irish looks horrific (Siobhán is shiv-awn for example) but very very closely follows pronunciation rules so that pronunciation would be no surprise to a native reading it for the first time. English sure as fuck does not follow rules like that.

          Near. Neat. Book. Boot. Etc.

          (Some small subset of Irish folks do say “boo-k” though)

          • @pyre
            link
            46 hours ago

            maybe I should have clarified: not every language has quirks in the same ways. German has weird articles that make no sense. French has different pluralization rules for up to four objects

            But even of you just want to think about writing: German makes super long words that look monstrous by mushing words together. French doesn’t pronounce half the letters in its spelling. Arabic doesn’t really have vowels but instead uses diacritics that are often omitted so you have to be really familiar with the language to read at all.