tenses

[Anita1]

Hi

I have two sentences:

i had my hair cut
i wouldnt if i were you

Could someone help me with their tenses please and how can i explain these to someone.

Much obliged.

[Casiopea]

What kind of assignment is it?

[Super Sonic]

The first one is simple past tense, because "had" is the past form of the verb "has", second one's tense is simple past tense as well:

be:
V1: am/is/are
V2: was/were

Hope I could be of some help.

[Anita1]

its not an assignment, i need to explain this to my niece doing her A-levels

[Anita1]

can you give me examples for these two tenses please

[Anita1]

Originally Posted by Casiopea

What kind of assignment is it?

Hey Casiopea, can you help me?

[Casiopea]

Additionally, the first example houses a type of causative construct that's passive like. The person, say Max, had something done for her (by someone else). That is, she didn't cut her own hair. She had someone do it for her. The second example houses modal would and subjunctive were. Note, would is not the main verb. The main verb and its object have been omitted (i.e., I wouldn't do it, if...).

1. I had my hair cut.
2. I wouldn't, if I were you.

Does that help?

[Anita1]

does that mean that the first tense is simple past with causative of "have" and not past perfect, because if it was P/perfect, there would have been two "Had", making the sentence like: I had had my hair cut?
and second one didnt make nay sense to me?? sorry, can you explain it please

[Casiopea]

The past perfect takes a form of HAVE (have, has, or had) + a past participle (a word ending in -ed or -en); e.g., have eaten, has gone, had been. Our example sentence I had my hair cut doesn't have a past participle, so the verb isn't past perfect.

Subjunctive is a mood. It's used for hypothetical and contrary to fact situations. There's a great deal written about it online. Try § 61. subjunctive. 1. Grammar. The American Heritage Book of English Usage. 1996

Does that help?

[Anita1]

Originally Posted by Casiopea

The past perfect takes a form of HAVE (have, has, or had) + a past participle (a word ending in -ed or -en); e.g., have eaten, has gone, had been. Our example sentence I had my hair cut doesn't have a past participle, so the verb isn't past perfect.

Subjunctive is a mood. It's used for hypothetical and contrary to fact situations. There's a great deal written about it online. Try § 61. subjunctive. 1. Grammar. The American Heritage Book of English Usage. 1996

Does that help?

got the first sentence as simple past.
second one: would that be right to say that its past conditional???