had

CEFRA1

/hæd/

verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    Past form of have, meaning possessed, experienced, or received.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    As past subjunctive: would have.

Examples

  • I am not an artist. I never had the knack for it.

  • Ms. Eichler had a notorious reputation for being austere to her students.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • /əd/
  • /hæt/

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. Used to form the past perfect tense, expressing an action that took place prior to a reference point that is itself in the past.

  2. simple past and past participle of have

More examples

In context

  • The baby had been abandoned by its mother.

  • A good time was had by all.

  • I felt sure that I had seen him before.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

After eating too much ice cream, the boy blank a stomachache.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

From Middle English hadde (preterite), yhad (past participle), from Old English hæfde (first and third person singular preterite), ġehæfd (past participle), from Proto-Germanic *habdaz, past and past participle stem of *habjaną (“to have”), equivalent to have + -ed. Cognate with Dutch had, German hatte, Swedish hade, Icelandic hafði.