had had to

[constantinusphilo]

He’d had way too much to drink, and the last thing I wanted was a fight.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
How can I paraphrase this sentence? It had been necessary for him to drink a lot?

 

[5jj]

It had been necessary for him to drink a lot?

That's not what it means.

It means He had drunk far too much.

 

[Yankee]

I don't know what would make it "necessary" for anyone to drink too much. You could simply say/write: "He had way too much to drink and...... "

 

[5jj]

? It had been necessary for him to drink a lot.

If you really wanted to convey that message, you'd need to say He'd had to drink too much.

 

[constantinusphilo]

That's not what it means.

It means He had drunk far too much.

But actually, it says: he had had to drink far too much.

 

[5jj]

It doesn't. it says He’d had way too much to drink.

 

[constantinusphilo]

It doesn't. it says He’d had way too much to drink.

So, this is an expression 'have way too much to do something'.

 

[5jj]

Not really. it's pretty much restricted to consumption of food and drink.

I drank too much - I had too much to drink
I ate too much - I had too much to drink

 

[emsr2d2]

So, this is an expression 'have way too much to do something'.

No. You've added an extra idea at the end with "to do something". For that meaning, you'd need something like "I'd had way too much to drink to drive home". That means "I had had too many alcoholic drinks to safely/legally drive a car".

 

[Phaedrus]

He’d had way too much to drink, and the last thing I wanted was a fight.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
How can I paraphrase this sentence? It had been necessary for him to drink a lot?

That's not what it means.

Constantinusphilo seems to be parsing "He'd had way too much to drink" as "He'd had [way too much] [to drink]" rather than as "He'd had [way too much to drink]."

In other words, he is parsing it as native speakers would parse "He'd had way too much to do."

Though syntactically possible, constantinusphilo's parsing is, of course, contextually and semantically absurd for the sentence in question.