I'm trying to explain the grammar of

CJ Dennis had 2 edit suggestions approved

to other people, however, the more I try to explain it, the more confused I get about it myself. In all following examples, I will use bold for all verb forms, and additionally italics for past participles and adjectives.

"had" by itself is usually simple past tense, however, "approved" is not an adjective but a past participle as the following changes show:

CJ Dennis had 2 edit suggestions green (adjective is ungrammatical here)

CJ Dennis had 2 edit suggestions eaten (past participle is grammatical here)

So, does that make it past perfect: "had approved"?

I don't think so, because the sentence appears to be a form of passive:

CJ Dennis had 2 edit suggestions approved [by other users]

I made the suggestions, but I didn't approve them myself; other people did. Also the appearance of a past participle doesn't necessarily imply past perfect:

The leaves eaten [by the caterpillar] were green.

This reduces to

The leaves were green.

which is clearly simple past. It can also be simple present:

The leaves (partially) eaten are brown around the edges now.

However, passive with "CJ Dennis" as the subject doesn't seem to fully make sense either, as the other users approved my edits, not me:

2 edit suggestions were approved [by other users]

The passive seems to be on the edit suggestions. "had" appears to be being used in a possessive sense, i.e. these are how many I had.

So, getting back to:

CJ Dennis had 2 edit suggestions approved

What is the tense, aspect, and mood of this sentence? Is it simple past or past perfect? Is it passive? Is "had" being used as an auxiliary verb or not?

I'm trying to explain the grammar of

CJ Dennis had 2 edit suggestions approved

to other people, however, the more I try to explain it, the more confused I get about it myself.

The context is from our very own Stack Exchange network!:

Reviewer Stats

• user123 has approved 12 edit suggestions and rejected 7 edit suggestions and improved 3 edit suggestions

• user456 has approved 9 edit suggestions and rejected 3 edit suggestions and improved 2 edit suggestions

Editor Stats

• CJ Dennis had 2 edit suggestions approved, and 0 edit suggestions rejected

In all following examples, I will use bold for all verb forms, and additionally italics for past participles and adjectives.

"had" by itself is usually simple past tense, however, "approved" is not an adjective but a past participle as the following changes show:

CJ Dennis had 2 edit suggestions green (adjective is ungrammatical here)

CJ Dennis had 2 edit suggestions eaten (past participle is grammatical here)

So, does that make it past perfect: "had approved"?

I don't think so, because the sentence appears to be a form of passive:

CJ Dennis had 2 edit suggestions approved [by other users]

I made the suggestions, but I didn't approve them myself; other people did. Also the appearance of a past participle doesn't necessarily imply past perfect:

The leaves eaten [by the caterpillar] were green.

This reduces to

The leaves were green.

which is clearly simple past. It can also be simple present:

The leaves (partially) eaten are brown around the edges now.

However, passive with "CJ Dennis" as the subject doesn't seem to fully make sense either, as the other users approved my edits, not me:

2 edit suggestions were approved [by other users]

The passive seems to be on the edit suggestions. "had" appears to be being used in a possessive sense, i.e. these are how many I had.

So, getting back to:

CJ Dennis had 2 edit suggestions approved

What is the tense, aspect, and mood of this sentence? Is it simple past or past perfect? Is it passive? Is "had" being used as an auxiliary verb or not?