This Merriam-Webster English Grammar Lesson Broke The Internet, Here's Why

Merriam-Webster has a cool Internet presence and the English dictionary routinely shares nifty English lessons on X. Yes, the dictionary we have grown up using and loving has over a million followers on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform and it keeps its religious followers occupied. From sharing Word of The Day to teaching true word pronunciations to judging the grammatical anomalies landing on its lap, to dropping etymology threads, to roasting public with witty clapbacks, Merriam-Webster does it all.

Recently, an irate user on the Musk site politely asked fellow linguistic community to go easy on words by repeating them one after another.

“as English speakers we have to sort out the ‘had had’ situation. it’s frankly embarrassing to the language

(sic),” lamented @achingkneejoint. However, what Merriam-Webster next sent the Internet over edge.

Why Should You Care About Merriam-Webster?

If you are still on the fence about whether this story is worth your time and the finger-jog, here’s a quick reminder of what Merriam-Webster did to AI, and no, we aren’t talking about Artificial Intelligence.

At a time when humanity has integrated Artificial Intelligence into every aspect of their lives, the lexicographic entity with over two centuries of history humbly reminded us about the new Large Language Model that they were about to launch.

What’s the catch?

Merriam-Webster clobbered AI companies, shading them over their “artificial” intelligence by introducing “actual” intelligence that was their Twelfth Edition of dictionary.

This sarcastic jibe at AI while reassuring that their dictionary “never hallicunates” earned them over 20 million views on X alone.

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25. pic.twitter.com/lKryOVGPAO

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) September 26, 2025

Had Had Meets Merriam-Webster

Always on the lookout to impart grammatical lessons in a fly by, the dictionary arrived at the now-viral X post to share its two cents.

“But, it’s not wrong that that occurs,” Merriam-Webster firmly declared.

But, it’s not wrong that that occurs. https://t.co/QEjkHe9nep

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) February 4, 2026

The dictionary also engaged in some banter.

Totally.

Listen to your heart.

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) February 4, 2026

Internet Has A Field Day

What seemed like a fleeting grammar lesson on a Wednesday night turned into a chaotic mess.

“If most sentences that had ‘had had’ had had ‘had’, they would have been grammatically incorrect,” an X user response under the dictionary tweet read.

“There was this one time during an English exam when I, while most had had “had”, had had “had had”. “Had had” had had a better effect on our teacher,” another ridiculous reply stated.

Things really did get out of control.

“You might as well just go the full “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo.””

“John, where James had had “had,” had had “had had.” “Had had” had had a better effect on the teacher.”

“I had had it with ” had had” until I realized you had had it with it as well.”

Others were just happy to be alive to witness the dictionary “speak”.

“the happiness you bring me with these tweets. my inner child feels like I get to “see the dictionary speak” and it really feels so indulgent as a book nerd (sic).”

It’s Weird And Normal At The Same Time

While Merriam-Webster is always right (duh!), a few English speaker weren’t too comfortable with the repeating words.

Taking to r/linguistics subreddit, a user found the doable word usage by Agatha Christie and Enid Blyton “unnatural”.

“When reading Agatha Christie and Enid Blyton, I notice that they often use ‘that that’ and ‘had had’. For example, ‘I just noticed that that way of phrasing had had an interesting effect.’, as opposed to ‘I just noticed that way of phrasing had an interesting effect.’ This seems really unnatural to me and often requires me to read the sentence twice to get a sense of it. Additionally, I rarely, or possibly never, have heard this in more modern texts and speech.”

One of the responses got into the technicalities of the funny language that English is.

“As far as I am aware, there is no technical term for this. In each case, each instance of the word serves a different function: in that that, the first that is a complementiser or conjunction, and the second that is a determiner. In had had, the first had is a past-tense auxiliary verb, and the second had is the participle of a “main” verb. Never mind the meanings of these terms — but the idea is that each of them is a combination of words with different functions; they simply happen to be spelled and pronounced the same way. This seems interesting and unique on first inspection, but they are really just two words strung together in building a sentence, and there isn’t really a phenomenon to be named,” part of a longer Redditor response read.

Is There A “Fix”?

Rearrange the sentence or use a different word to bring calm.

Problem? “My drill isn’t very fast. I’m adding a battery to it. I hope that that fixes it.”

Solution: “My drill isn’t very fast, so I’m adding a battery to it; I hope that this fixes it.”