What is this instance of using two words in a sentence called? Where the first had indicates a past event, and the second denotes the act of having something. I can't think of another example right now but I have seen this occurrence of two words next to each other in a sentence and wondered if there was a term for that? "That that would happen is terrible" [I thought of another example] The first "that" being used to reference the occurrence of the second "that".
"He had had, but not anymore."
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Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
My phone number has three threes, but only one one. Will the same pilot pilot the plane on the flight home? Tibor speaks five languages: he's a very European European.
Quintessence
Registered Member
"That that would happen is terrible." That is a sentence with an independent clause and a subordinate clause. ". . . that would happen . . ." is the subordinate clause. The independent clause is, "That is terrible." The second that is acting as a demonstrative pronoun of a prenominal which acts like adjectives for it modifies a noun or nouns which, in this case, is the first that.
That is a cognate object of which is when the verb has the same form as the noun.