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 verb and say why this form has been used.

Sure, here are five sentences from the story with the past perfect tense, along with explanations for their usage:

1. "We had learned that the day before."

   • Explanation: The past perfect tense "had learned" is used to indicate an action that occurred before another past action. In this case, the learning ("had learned") happened before the events narrated in the story.

2. "I had often said to myself that after the war I would go and ask M. Hamel to forgive me."

   • Explanation: The past perfect tense "had often said" is used to indicate a past action that occurred repeatedly or habitually before another past action. The speaker had repeatedly thought about asking for forgiveness ("had often said") before the events of the story.

3. "Little Franz, in his desk, was turning over the leaves of his grammar."

   • Explanation: The past perfect tense "was turning" is used to indicate an ongoing action that was interrupted by another past action. In this case, Franz was in the process of turning over the leaves of his grammar book when the events in the story occurred.

4. "I looked at the back of the room, and I saw that even old Hauser had tears in his eyes."

   • Explanation: The past perfect tense "had tears" is used to indicate an action that had been completed before another past action. In this case, the action of having tears ("had tears") had occurred before the speaker looked at the back of the room.

5. "In front of us, on the schoolmaster's desk, was a big cane."

   • Explanation: The past perfect tense "was" is used to indicate a state or condition that existed before another past action. In this case, the big cane was already on the desk ("was") before the events described in the story unfolded.