Words, forms and language

Words take their sense from context. The verb 'tell' has several meanings:

• to count while reciting: she was telling her beads (counting the beads of her rosary as she prayed);
• to make known: tell the truth;
• to give information: tell me the time;
• to be sure: you can never tell what may happen.

Some phrases with 'take': 'take to' something means to begin it as a habit (she took to feeding the sparrows); 'be taken ill' means to fall ill suddenly (the next morning she was taken ill).

English has many verbs for different ways of walking: hobble (walk with difficulty, like the grandmother), shuffle (drag the feet), stride (take long steps), waddle (sway from side to side, like a duck), swagger (walk proudly), trudge and slog (walk slowly and wearily). Verbs like haggle (argue about a price), ride and wriggle are not ways of walking.

The past perfect tense is formed with had + the past participle: had known, had finished, had gone. It shows an action that was completed before another time in the past. For example: By the time he came home, she had fed the sparrows.

Notice too: the author and his grandmother would have talked in their home language, not in English, which she did not know. The story is written in English, but we 'hear' them speaking their own tongue.