Learn English – what does ”had you figured” mean

meaningmeaning-in-contextparts-of-speech

There is sentence that A tells his friend when he(A) sees him with a new car(hot rod):

'' never had you figured for a gearhead''

I think I need an explanation for ''had'' and meaning/part of speech of it here.

Best Answer

To "figure" is "think, consider, or expect to be the case." (google marks it as North American, but I think this usage is fairly common in the UK too). For example "I figured that she was your wife" = I thought, based on what I worked out, that woman was your wife. There is also an interjection "That figures!" meaning "That makes sense to me". A gearhead is a new word for me, but from context I suppose it means one who loves cars (I'd use petrolhead)

The "had" is the regular past perfect tense. Its not really essential but works well here. So "I never had you figured for a gearhead" = prior to seeing you with a hotrod, I never expected you to be a car lover.

Related Topic