0

She told me they found him hanging in his parent's house. He (had) used his climbing rope, tied so that he could pull himself up from the floor.

Do I need that had? Why or why not?

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

It's appropriate to use had used in this sentence, because the Past Perfect expresses the idea that something occurred before another action in the past. Action in the second part of this sentence was before that they found him hanging.

Improve this answer
1
  • Yes but it is obvious that he chose his climbing rope before he tied himself and hung so I think past perfect would not be necessary in that case . Or if you employ that tense it is to emphasize the connection between the climbing rope and how he used" he used it because he wanted to committ suicide
    – Yves Lefol
    Commented May 10, 2015 at 16:05

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .