The French perfect and pluperfect tensesThe pluperfect tense

Forming the pluperfect tense

The pluperfect is used to talk about actions further back in the past or events that had happened.

To form the pluperfect tense, use the imperfect tense of avoir or être and a past participle. For example:

• J’avais mangé – I had eaten
• Nous avions fini – We had finished

The same verbs that use être as an auxiliary in the perfect tense tense, use être (in the imperfect) as an auxiliary in the pluperfect. The past participle must agree with the subject.

• Tu étais allé(e) – You had gone
• Elle était sortie – She had gone out

Using the pluperfect tense

The pluperfect is used to describe something that had happened before another event happened in the past. For example:

• Avant de partir en vacances, j’avais changé de l’argent à la banque. – Before going on holiday, I had changed some money at the bank.

It can be used in reported speech. For example:

• Il m’a dit qu’il était allé en France. – He told me he had been to France.

It is also used in past conditional sentences. For example:

• Si elle avait fait ses devoirs, elle aurait compris la leçon aujourd’hui. – If she had done her homework, she would have understood the lesson today.

Complete the sentences with the verbs in the pluperfect.