Read this sentence
M. Hamel had said that he would question us on participles.
In the sentence above, the verb form “had said” in the first part is used to indicate an “earlier past”. The whole story is narrated in the past. M. Hamel’s “saying” happened earlier than the events in this story. This form of the verb is called the past perfect.
Pick out five sentences from the story with this form of the verbs and say why this form has been used.
Five sentences in the past perfect tense:
1. For the last two years, all our bad news had come from there- the lost battles, the draft, the orders of commanding officer, I thought to myself.
2. I had counted on the commotion to get to my desk without being seen.
3. I had to open the door and go in before everybody.
4. When people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language, it is as if they had key to their prison.
5. But he had the courage to hear every lesson to the very last.
This tense has been used because in the story, the incidents are happening at two different points of time. The incidents that took place earlier takes past perfect (had+v3) and that happened later took v2.
For example: In sentence 1, first the information had come and then Franz thought to himself.
In sentence 2, first he got scared and then he tried to get to the desk without being seen.
In sentence 3, he had to open the door before getting in.
In sentence 4, they had their key to prison before they were enslaved.
In sentence 5, he had the courage and so, he listened to the lesson to the end.