How To Form And Use The French Plus-Que-Parfait (Pluperfect)

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In French, the “plus-que-parfait” or pluperfect tense is used to indicate actions that occurred prior to other past actions. It would equate to “had happened” in English. For example, “Je n’ai pas mangé à 18h00 parcé que j’avais dejà mange à 16h00” (I didn’t eat at 6pm because I’d already eaten at 4pm).

Plus-que-parfait

For verbs conjugated avoir (to have) in the passé composé, the pluperfect is formed by combining avoir in the imperfect tense with the past participle. For verbs formed with être in the passé composé, use the imperfect of être.

Pluperfect conjugation endings

Parler (to speak) - had spoken
j'avais parlé tu avais parlé il avait parlé	nous avions parlé vous aviez parlé ils avaient parlé
Arriver (to arrive) - had arrived
j'étais arrivé(e) tu étais arrivé(e) il/elle était arrivé(e)	nous étions arrivé(e)s vous étiez arrivé(e)(s) ils étaient arrivé(e)s
Se lever (to get up) - had gotten up
je m'étais levé(e) tu t'étais levé(e) il/elle s'était levé(e)	nous nous étions levé(e)s vous vous étiez levé(e)(s) ils s'étaient levé(e)s

Sample sentences using the French pluperfect

The best way to get a sense of how to use the French plus-que-parfait is by going through some example sentences.

• Cet hiver, j’ai visité la France. L’année dernière, j’avais visité l’Italie. This winter I visited France. Last winter I’d visited Italy.
• Quand je suis arrivé au cinéma, le film avait déjà commencé. When I got the movies the movie had already started.
• Aujourd’hui je me suis promené en ville. Hier, je m’étais promené dans la campagne. Today I took a walk downtown. Yesterday I’d taken a walk in the countryside.
• Quand papa est entré dans la cuisine, maman avait déjà préparé le repas. When dad entered the kitchen, mom had already made the meal.

Discover more:

• Imperfect tense
• Passé composé

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