Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted, clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts: 1

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It must confuse English learners to hear phrases like, "I'm home", instead of "I am at home." We don't say I'm school, or I'm post office. (self.showerthoughts)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by ParabolicMotion to c/showerthoughts

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (8 children)

My favorite confusing English sentence is "I have had too much to eat."

"Have had" is the same word twice, once in present tense, and again in past tense. It counts as one verb.
Both "too" and "to" used.
"Eat" is a noun.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago

Think of it this way - it's "have had" because

"I had too much to eat" would be past tense, meaning you ate too much, say, last week

"I have too much to eat" is future tense, meaning you went to the buffet and got carried away, now you've got a massive plate of chicken in front of you

So "I have (right at this moment) had (just ingested) too much to eat (and now I'm farting a lot)

Also, in this case "to eat" isn't a noun, it's the infinitive verb

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Technically "to eat" is the Infinitive form of the verb, and using infinitives as nouns isn't all that unusual in many languages.

[–] joel_feila 6 points 9 months ago

To eat, is a verb but taking in the role of a noun.

[–] Jubei_K_08 3 points 9 months ago

Reminded me of this sentence:

James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher.

Explanation.

[–] TempermentalAnomaly 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Most people are talking about the infinitive case for "eat", but I'd like to point out the verb, "have had", is the present perfect case. Still confusing and still agree with your simplification of "I ate too much". But there's still a meaningful difference between the two sentences.

[–] feedum_sneedson 1 points 9 months ago

I don't think eat is a noun here, but the grammar is weird isn't it? Is the food the implicit object of the sentence? I need to study more.

[–] ParabolicMotion 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That’s so true. Just avoid the awkwardness: I ate too much.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Also sounds much less awkward if you contract I have. For Example: I've had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane.

[–] scutiger 1 points 9 months ago

But more importantly, did you eat too much, or have you had too much and now you can't eat?