Hi, for the sentence "Chaque expulsé était encadré par un policier. Nous étions menottés", if I am not wrong, the english form should be "each 'expulsed' was surrounded by a police. We were handcuffed". Article is here: w w w.bbc.co.uk/afrique/region/2013/04/130425_guinee_expulsion.shtml However, it appears that the past tense of both "encadrer" & "menotter" is in the form "avoir+verb". So I do not understand why "être+verb" is used in this article. Also, I did a rough search on the web, seems like "était encadré" and "avait encadré" are both used but the former is more common. Same for "menotter". This is so confusing. Please help. Thank you.