These items appear in print in fade-in-fade-out sequence in the Epilogue to the Oscar-winning film, The Last King of Scotland (2006).
 
~~~~
 
When he was finally overthrown in 1978, jubilant crowds poured into the streets.
 
His reign had killed more than 300,000 Ugandans.
 
Amin died in exile in Saudi Arabia on the 16th of August, 2003.
 
And nobody knows if that was the date he had dreamed about.
 
~~~~

People DO, in both speaking and writing, put 'had' in front of past tense verbs, not always, not even most of the time, but sometimes, even though the word 'had' can do nothing for a past tense verb that the verb cannot do for itself. The word 'had' should never be put in front of a past tense verb, as in the two real-world examples above.
 
(If you like 'had killed' and 'had dreamed', why not write, 'Amin had died in exile' ?) 
 
.brad.sun.11oct09.


      

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