The plus-que-parfait in french

06 oct. 2017 12:38 - language-swap

Niveau expert

This tense in French is relatively used, however it is to be known.
The “plus-que-parfait” is basically used to talk about an action in the past that happened even before another action in the past.
This sentence is pretty easy to conjugate since it is form by the auxiliaries “être” (to be) and “avoir” (to have) conjugated in the “imparfait” (corresponding to the English preterit) and the past participle of the verb concerned.
Let's see:


AVOIR AVOIR MANGER ETRE ETRE TOMBER
Avais Avais mangé Étais Étais tombé
Avais Avais mangé Étais Étais tombé
Avait Avait mangé Était Était tombé
Avions Avions mangé Étions Étions tombé
Aviez Aviez mangé Étiez Étiez tombés
Avaient Avaient mangé Étaient Étaient tombés

To know how to put the verbs in their past participle form, you can check the lesson on it.
However here is some tips:
the verbs finishing in -é are the verbs of the first group (couper, coupé)
the verbs finishing in -i are the verbs finishing in -IR (franchir, franchi)
the verbs finishing in -u are the verbs finishing in -Re (attendre, attendu – entendre, entendu)
the verbs composed with the verb prendre finish in -is (prendre, pris – surprendre, supris – reprendre, repris)

/!\ Warning, remember that the past participle has to agree with the noun when used with the auxiliary “être” or when the direct object is put before the verb with the auxiliary “avoir”.
In order to know which auxiliary you should use, see the lesson on the choice of the auxiliaries “le choix des auxiliaires au passé composé”.