Grammar Girl here, today's topic is double words.

Guest writer Bonnie Tranca writes,

Today's today's podcast podcast is is about words that are doubled, such as had had and

is is.

Words grammar checker automatically alerts you when you repeat a word, but sometimes

such doubling is allowed.

Sometimes in the normal course of writing or speaking, we have to double words because

that's just how the sentence comes out.

We might say something like, when I gave her her hat back, she thanked me.

Word doesn't approve, but the sentence is grammatical, if a bit awkward.

Another example is, by the time I thought of it, it was too late.

In this case, you can put a comma between the it's to make the sentence easier to follow.

Although those doubled words are correct, consider rewarding your sentence if the repeated

words bother you or you think they might bother someone else.

Other double you might encounter as had had and Frank from New York would like to know

if it's a correct phrase.

It is correct, though it too might seem a bit awkward.

To understand had had, we need to take a look at the present perfect and past perfect

tenses.

Take this sentence, I have had too many chocolates today.

That sentence is in the present perfect tense.

You use that tense when you're talking about a past action that is continuing into the

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