James while John had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher
James while John had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher is an English sentence that clarifies the need for punctuation and the ambiguity of the word had .
meaning
The sentence is often used as a puzzle where you need to add punctuation to make it grammatically correct.
Quotation marks for the metalinguistic expressions and commas make the sentence easier to understand:
“James, while John had had 'had', had had 'had had'; 'had had' had had a better effect on the teacher. "
This can be translated as a comparison of the solutions of two students in English class:
“While John chose 'had', James chose 'had had'; 'Had had' made more impression on the teacher. "