 Have had and had had from espressoenglish.net. Are you confused about how to use have had and had had in English? Today's lesson will help you. First, we need to understand the present perfect tense and past perfect tense. Both of these tenses are formed by using an auxiliary verb plus a main verb. The present perfect is have or has plus the main verb in the past participle. For example, I have finished all my homework. She has gone to the store. We have lived here for three years. The present perfect is used when an action starts in the past and continues to the present, as in example number three. Or when talking about past actions without saying when they happened, as in examples one and two. The past perfect is formed by had plus the main verb in the past participle. For example, my husband had finished all the housework by the time I got home. When I called Laura last night, her husband told me she had gone out. I had lived in five different cities before I turned 10 years old. The past perfect is used when one past action happens before another past action or event. So in the present perfect, the auxiliary verb is always have or has. And in the past perfect, the auxiliary verb is always had. We use have had in the present perfect when the main verb is also have. For example, I'm not feeling well. I have had a headache all day. She has had three children in the past five years. We have had some problems with our computer systems recently. He has had two surgeries on his back. And we use had had in the past perfect when the main verb is also have. For example, last weekend I just wanted to relax because I had had a busy week. The director told me he had had a meeting with the president. We had had some trouble with our fridge, so we called a repairman. She woke up screaming because she had had a bad dream. One important note is that in spoken English we almost always use the short form. We shortened the auxiliary verb. For example, I'm not feeling well. I've had a headache all day. She's had three children in the past five years. We've had some problems with our computer systems recently. He's had two surgeries on his back. Last weekend I just wanted to relax because I had had a busy week. The director told me he had had a meeting with the president. We had had some trouble with our fridge, so we called a repairman. She woke up screaming because she had had a bad dream. It's also common to have another word in the middle. For example, we've recently had some problems with our computer systems. He's just had two surgeries on his back. The director said he'd already had a meeting with the president. By the time I was 30, I'd only had one serious boyfriend. If you want to learn more English grammar, click on the link in the video to learn more about my Advanced English Grammar course. This course will help you improve your grammar and writing, so you can take your English from good to great. Click on the link in the video or in the description for more information or to sign up.