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Creativeguru

#512171 Sat, 10 May 08 08:09 PM

Police had arrested an innocent person who had to spend six days behind bars.

In the above sentence if i delete 'had' after police is it ok, because i think had is being repeated twice in the sentence

Creativeguru

Joined on Fri, Feb 8 2008

India

Regular Member (734)

Grammar Geek

#512177 Sat, 10 May 08 08:29 PM

Note: The police...

The had is not repeated the way you think. "Had arresed" makes it past perfect. "Had to" shows obligation. However, the past perfect isn't needed - it clear what the squence was.

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (15,622)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Past perfect

Anonymous

#512180 Sat, 10 May 08 08:37 PM

Yes, it is ok. Although, if you delete the first 'had' , I would suggest putting a 'the' in front of 'police'.

Anonymous

Yankee

#512251 Sun, 11 May 08 03:05 AM

Just to summarize:

had arrested = past perfect form of the verb 'arrest'

had to = simple past form of 'have to'

Although it is more common to say 'the police', the word 'police' is also sometime used without the definite article ('the') -- especially in news reports.