Words, idioms and the past perfect

English has borrowed words from many languages. For example, bazaar comes from Hindi, kindergarten from German, democracy from Greek, and robot from Czech. A good dictionary shows where a word comes from: this is its origin, or etymology.

Some phrases in the story are not meant literally:

• 'What a thunderclap these words were to me!' The words were not loud; they came as a sudden, terrible shock.
• 'I never saw him look so tall.' M. Hamel did not grow; at that moment he seemed strong, proud and dignified.
• 'In great haste' means very quickly; 'in plenty of time' means early enough, not late.

The story is told in the past, and it often uses the past perfect tense: had + past participle (had said, had come, had put on).

We use the past perfect for something that happened before another event in the past. For example: 'M. Hamel had put on his fine Sunday clothes' (before Franz arrived); 'For the last two years all our bad news had come from there.' Compare: 'he wrote' is the simple past; 'he had written' is the past perfect.