[Grammar] "We had ourselves had" ?

[DiamondBlueMoon]

Recently i came across an essay in one of my student books, which is kinda interesting. However, i'm confused about the structure of a sentence in the last paragraph:
"Then my father reminded me of the narrow escape that we had ourselves had."

I'm wondering if that kind of structure is past perfect or something else, and please explain more if it's different from PP. Thank you.

 

[Raymott]

Recently i came across an essay in one of my student books, which is [STRIKE]kinda [/STRIKE]interesting. However, i'm confused about the structure of a sentence in the last paragraph:
"Then my father reminded me of the narrow escape that we had ourselves had."

I'm wondering if that kind of structure is past perfect or something else, and please explain more if it's different from PP. Thank you.

Yes, it's past perfect, "had had". The bolded part means the same as "we had had ourselves".

PS: "Kinda" isn't a word. If you need an adverb to modify 'interesting', there are plenty of real words available. We prefer real words on this site because it's less confusing for students.

 

[charliedeut]

Recently I came across an essay in one of my student books, which is [STRIKE]kinda [/STRIKE] [please do not use informal expressions, these might mislead learners into thinking they are acceptable standard English]interesting. However, I'm confused about the structure of a sentence in the last paragraph:
"Then my father reminded me of the narrow escape that we had ourselves had."

I'm wondering if that kind of structure is past perfect or something else, and please explain more if it's different from Past Perfect [use full nomenclature whenever there is a chance for ambiguity: PP could also be understood as Present Perfect, or Past Participle, or Present participle, or what not]. Thank you.

IMO, "...of the narrow escape we had had ourselves" or "...of the narrow escape we had ourselves" are better options, depending on the speaker's intention. And yes, the first case is Past Perfect.

Also, please remember to always capitalize the first person singular pronoun, "I".

Edit: I was late this time! ;-)