Re: Have Had, Had Have

--- Emily Zilch <emily0@...> wrote:
> I also say things using this kind of extended
> construction. "I would've
> had to have eaten" would be the use of a kind of
> 'pluperfect' or
> 'perfective within a past context'. However, the
> construction eludes me
> a bit because the "would've" is a conditional past -
> as in "if i had
> wanted to go, i would've..." plus the use of the
> "had to have Xed",
> which is saying that at said time, I must have
> already eaten.
>
> Basically, I don't know if it satisfies the
> requirements of two modal
> haves. Can someone give me some grammatical
> suspenders for my pants,
> please?
>
Don't know whether it will fit, but nowadays, French
gramars use to mention the "passé surcomposé" et
"futur surcomposé":
Quand j'aurai eu fini de manger, j'irai faire un tour
(When I shall have had finished to eat, I shall go for
a stroll)
Quand j'ai eu fini de manger... (When I have had
finished...)

In my time, grammars didn't mention such tenses. We
used only passé composé, plus-que-parfait and futur
antérieur (Quand j'aurai fini de manger...) It seems
to me that the existence of such tenses if
semantically justified, although not every French
people accept it without thinking.


=====
Philippe Caquant

"High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs)


	
		
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